Unintentionally Yours
by artica's-ursula
Summary: Yuri foolishly barges in right before Yuuri's heat starts. Victor attacks him, thinking Yuri wants to steal his mate; Yuuri nearly kills Victor for harming "their pup"; Yuri just wants his skates back. Alpha/Beta/Omega universe.
1. The Nesting of Katsuki Yuuri

**Unintentionally Yours**

 _artica's-ursula (FFN)_

 _articas_ursula (AO3)_

* * *

 _This is ridiculous_ , Yuri seethed, glaring down at his cell phone and then back up at Victor's apartment door. As had been the case for the past seven minutes, it continued not to show any signs of opening.

"You have my skates!" Yuri shouted for the fifth time, stuffing his phone in his hoodie and resuming his hammering at the doorbell. " _Victor_ —!"

He paused when shuffling reached his ears from within the apartment and goddamn it, wasn't it about time? Finally, the door opened a sliver, revealing the Russian skater. His sterling hair was badly rumpled and there was a strained element to his smile.

"Ah—hey Yurio—!"

"That's an annoying name!" The blond shoved the door open enough to slip through, pushing Victor aside. "Give back my skates now! Why aren't you at training? And, _ugh_ , why is it so hot in here?"

The apartment was indeed warm—nearly boiling, actually. Yuri felt himself starting to sweat after just a few seconds inside, though considering how worked up he'd become after either occupant failed to answer their phone, perhaps that wasn't a surprise.

"It was suddenly so cold this morning!" Victor answered, and even with his head now stuck way over in the hallway closet, Yuri could hear the pout.

" _Suddenly_? We live in Russia, idiot!"

Unaffected, Victor straightened up, winking stupidly. "Here they are! And look, I put new blade covers on for you! The little doggies look like Makkachin. Look, see?"

Yuri blinked, trying to follow with his eyes the skates Victor was brandishing at him by the laces. Even from a distance he could see that the terrycloth fitting snuggly over his blades was covered in cute brown poodles. The boy's cheeks tinted pink; he liked them very much. He should thank Victor, right? That's what good rivals or friends or whatever did.

"T-That's—! That's fine!" Yuri shouted mechanically, back ramrod straight and lips grimacing in a way that he figured was a smile. The mirror on the inside of the closet door made him want to slam his head against a wall. He looked ridiculously awkward and when the hell were Victor and Katsudon going to notice what a rude brat he was and stop doing nice things for him all the time?

It wasn't like Yuri forgot his skates accidentally; he just knew Victor would pick up after him like always. Yuri definitely didn't leave them behind so he'd give Victor a reason to bother him the next day before practice and he _absolutely_ didn't do it so Yuuri would flit around fussing over him, worrying that he looked tired or occasionally stuffing a snack with Japanese labeling in his hand, wordlessly ordering him to eat it.

Yuri was just lazy, that was all.

Well, that had backfired when the sickeningly sweet Alpha-Omega couple hadn't bothered to show up at the rink this morning, making Yuri go out of his way to drop by their apartment. Yakov had informed him that the two had called-off last minute and sent Yuri sprinting to their residence a few blocks from the ice in a panic to avoid missing the training session he actually had the decency to show up for.

But the blade covers _did_ remind him of something.

"Where's your dumb dog anyway?" Suspicious, Yuri looked more closely around the living room as though expecting to find the poodle curled up somewhere. His eyes lingered on the coffee table, which he noticed for the first time boasted an odd pile of objects. The surface was stacked with three huge cases of water along with more energy bars than Yuri thought any two people had any right to own at once.

"Are you going camping or something?"

Victor blinked distractedly. "Huh?" He had paused on his way to hand the skates over to rub the scent gland of his wrist on a soft-looking knitted afghan. The throw was draped over the back of the couch, but the stink of Victor's Alpha pheromones immediately made Yuri gag from across the room.

"Gross! What was the point of that, you idiot!? I'll be sick all over your floor!"

"Take them and get out," Victor snapped suddenly, practically teleporting in front of the younger man and shoving the ice skates under his nose by the laces.

The total attitude turnaround gave Yuri whiplash and he unconsciously stepped back to give the more domineering Alpha some space. He snatched the skates from the air but couldn't quite bring himself to leave. Victor was an idiot, but he sort of looked up to him, dammit! He hadn't actually meant to offend him.

"N-no! I don't have to go anywhere!" Yuri gulped, warring between his inner Alpha demanding that he square up against the threat and turning tail to run. In the end, he couldn't manage either. "A-and you'd better tell me if you have a problem, fool!"

 _You're still my friend, right?_

Something creaked and both Victor and Yuri jerked around towards the sound.

"Yurio?"

Yuri barely heard the soft, sweet voice because he was busy getting clubbed in the head by a smell so delicious that it went beyond food or flowers or anything at all. It smelt warm and heady; like earth but like fire.

It smelled like fertile Omega.

"Victor, let him leave!"

On some level, Yuri knew that he should be backing away; Yuuri was trying to get him out safely.

But a young Alpha is a stupid Alpha and so Yuri ended up just standing there with what he was sure was a stupid look on his face.

Clearly deciding that Yuri was not leaving fast enough, Victor seemed to grasp for the final slivers of humanity rapidly being overshadowed by his Alpha instincts. Between teeth that barely moved, Victor snarled at him what could loosely be interpreted as the word "go."

And perhaps too late, Yuri understood his situation: Yuuri was going into heat. Victor was preparing to _breed_ him!

And then the thought that escalated them all to violence hit: Victor saw him as a rival; an _equal_ and that was all he'd wanted since forever. Yuri felt _seen_. It was stupid— _he_ was stupid—and the second Yuri did it he immediately wished he hadn't, but he really, really couldn't help it:

His chest visibly puffed up in pride.

Victor, who had been holding himself in check only barely, lunged for Yuri. Even as it was happening in what seemed like slow-motion, Yuri couldn't help but acknowledge that he did this to himself. Of course Victor was going to see his posturing as a bid for his Omega, and to not respond to Yuri's challenge would be to loose face in front of the future dam of his children.

Victor's fist slammed into his nose with a spurt of blood and distinct _crack_. They fell to the floor together in a tangle of flailing limbs and Victor got in another hit, this time to Yuri's throat. The blond sputtered and gasped as his windpipe spasmed. Victor was looming over him, fist raised, and Yuri couldn't believe he was going to die by an airhead who forgot things so easily he may as well have been a three-year-old.

So he was completely shocked when a blur hit Victor's vicious form, knocking the man from where he'd been pinning Yuri down and sending him sprawled awkwardly against the coffee table he'd landed against.

Yuri scooted away, still choking and coughing and spewing blood from his nostrils, but he couldn't tear his gaze away from where Yuuri— _fucking Katsudon, a fucking Omega!—_ was in the middle of murdering Victor by sinking his short but sharp Omega-nails into the soft flesh of Victor's throat and strangling him.

Finally Yuuri spoke, but it wasn't anything like the soft voice Yuri had gotten used to over the months. It was harsh and bloodthirsty and said: "Touch our pup again and I'll kill you myself!"

"K-Katsudon!" Yuri rasped, panicked despite himself because the pretty little Omega was fucking terrifying and Victor couldn't afford to lose any more brain cells. Victor's lips were turning a disturbing indigo color and he didn't seem to be able to defend himself, clearly preferring death to violence against his Omega.

Thankfully, Yuuri heard him on some level and obligingly relaxed his grip. Blood and oxygen were finally allowed back into Victor's head and the silver-haired man took great lungfuls of air without moving his eyes from glaring at Yuri, as though intending to throw his breathless corpse at the fifteen year old if he made a wrong move.

"I don't want to b- _breed_ with Katsudon!" Yuri hissed at him with a mortified blush, his voice breaking twice as he rubbed at his doubtlessly bruised throat.

But both Victor and Yuuri were too far gone now to understand what he was saying and the pace of the room had completely changed. The air was saturated with angry Alpha pheromones but Katsudon's scent had changed too. No longer was he giving off the world's most tempting aroma; instead of fire and earth, he smelled like warmth and sugar crystals.

"Yuuri," Victor rumbled, just short of an order.

But Yuuri just hissed at him, scuttling away to grab one of the heavy waters and an armful of energy bars. His teeth were still bared warningly in Victor's direction as he nudged Yuri along with his foot.

"Wha—? Let me go, Ka—" Yuri rethought this, seeing Victor's practically-destroyed form eying him from a few feet away. Not only did Yuri not want to be attacked by that guy again, but Katsudon did a real number on Victor and Yuri wasn't exactly dying for the same treatment.

He stumbled to his feet, allowing himself to be herded by the Omega through another door. He heard Yuuri snarl one last warning to his Alpha before closing the door with a slam and shoving numerous random objects in front of it—a desk, a dog bed, several chairs. He was clearly too far into whatever Omega-space he'd gotten himself into to think of actually just locking the door and Yuri didn't want to draw attention to himself by doing it; he backed up to allow Yuuri to continue.

"Gah!" He flailed wildly as he tripped backward over what seemed like a huge pile of laundry lumped on the floor, dropping his skates and spinning his arms like windmills for balance. It didn't help. Yuri groaned, twitching on the ground, but found that he was surprisingly unhurt.

"Ugh… at least I landed in these blankets… all over the… floor…?"

The shriek he let out was neither worthy of an Alpha nor was it anything he'll ever admit happened. It was justified, though, because it turned out that what he'd tripped over—what he'd thought was a pile of dirty clothes—was actually—

"Nest," he squeaked, frantically scrambling backward until he's out of the large pit made of blankets and sweaters and things that reek of Victor's stupid scent. Yuri was surprised to still be alive to notice any of this, actually, because Omegas were notoriously protective of their nests. The only time anyone actually saw an Omega nest was when the Omega invited their Alpha into it to breed or to preen with their spawn.

Yuri immediately knew which category Yuuri had put him in and almost blurted out in offense that he was _not_ the Omega's pup. He was an Alpha, dammit! He didn't need an Omega's protection! Wisely, he held his tongue though because that was the only thing keeping Katsudon from gutting him like a fish for stepping in his nest.

Nervously, he glanced over at Yuuri, who was perched just outside the nest and staring at him softly. The image would have been almost sweet if he wasn't also licking Victor's blood from his nails and _what the fuck, Katsudon, you fucking psycho!?_

They sat there like that for several seconds: Yuuri mindlessly preening and Yuri trying not to do anything that might bring to Yuuri's attention that he is not, in fact, his and Victor's pup and the best thing to do with him is eat Yuri for lunch.

When Yuri's breathing returned to a normal rate and Yuuri failed to try and kill him, the blonde began shifting uncomfortably on the hardwood floor. The thrashing Victor had served him had clearly left more than a few places that would bruise and one of them was his left ankle. Sitting cross-legged on it was very difficult, but when he tried to shift to another position, he found his body more painful still. The thought crossed his mind to sit down on the Alpha and Omega's bed, but recalling how ravished Yuuri looked and how satisfied Victor did more often than not, Yuri refused to go anywhere near where the two clearly had sex on a regular basis.

Briefly, Yuri tried to convince his jailer to release him, but Yuuri refused conversation.

Yuri huddled on the floor for another half-hour.

Yuuri's nest actually looked… pretty comfortable. Not that he wanted to sleep in it or anything! It was just the only place in the room that wasn't hardwood or… christened.

"Katsudon?" Yuri tried, but Yuuri's feral eyes were completely devoid of reason. He had rearranged himself near the door as though guarding it and though his eyes flickered occasionally towards the blonde, mostly he stared intently at the unmoving doorknob.

Giving up, Yuri slowly began to move towards the thick layers of blankets and clothing with a cozy-looking dent in the middle. He eyed Katsudon warily as he began to cross over the ridge of his nest, but the Omega made no show of threat to him, merely returning to preening as Yuri settled in.

"Ahh." That was much better. Cautiously stretching his legs after the long period of keeping himself as small a target as possible, Yuri was surprised to find that this was… alright. As long as he pushed Victor's shitty sweaters to the other side of the nest, the smell was even tolerable. The whole room smelled softly of Katsudon's scent and the air was so warm.

Yuri remembered back in grade school when a classmate had been missing from school for days, showing up later to complain loudly to his friends about how his Omega-dam had forced him to stay in her nest as she preened for two whole days. His Alpha-sire, a formidable woman, had stayed just outside the nesting room the whole time, guarding them.

Yuri's parents, a pair of Alphas, had obviously never felt the nesting urge. In fact, they barely felt any urge to parent Yuri at all, preferring to delegate that to nursemaids despite his grandfather's protests.

Back then, Yuri remembered feeling jealous of his classmate, bitterly wishing his own mother would care enough to dote on him for two straight days while his father protected them both. Yuri ended up punching the kid in question and getting himself suspended for four days, but his parents weren't even in the same country and certainly didn't spend the time he was forced to stay home nesting with him. His grandfather had tried to pry out the reason why Yuri had attacked the fellow eight-year-old when he picked him up from the Headmistress's office, but Yuri had refused to say anything.

"Eat."

Yuri let out another embarrassing shriek upon opening his eyes (and when had he even closed them?) to find Katsudon barely three inches away from his nose. It was alarming to see that the entire honey-brown iris had become totally overcome by the black of overdilated pupils. Yuri was so transfixed by it that it took several attempts by Yuuri to place the energy bar in his hand for the young Alpha to realize that the Omega was trying to feed him.

"I—okay," Yuri caved, not knowing what else to do but accept the food. He held it limply in his hand like a dead fish before realizing that Yuuri was watching him intently, waiting for him to eat. Not wanting to offend the Omega, and not known what would happen if he did, Yuri peeled off the wrapper and pointedly took a bite.

That seemed to satisfy Katsudon because the dark-haired Omega dropped the terrifying stare that made Yuri feel like he hadn't ruled out the idea of slitting Yuri's throat and feasting on his vocal cords. However, Yuri was unprepared for the slender brunet to settle in next to him and start purring.

"H-hey!" Yuri protested, a blush climbing his neck. He finally went bright red when Katsudon shoved his nose against the crown of the blonde's head and sniffed.

Yuri began to worry when the Omega didn't move for some time. A shocked noise escaped his throat when he felt Yuuri rub the inside of his wrist against the top of his head; a familial marker.

The knowledge of what it was made Yuri freeze up, hunching back into his skating jacket as a torrent of thoughts and feelings soaked into his mind. Should he feel embarrassed; angry, even? He really wasn't that much younger than Yuuri—okay, so he was eight years younger, but still! He was an Alpha, dammit, and Katsudon was a rare male Omega—not to mention the Grand Prix silver medalist last year! For Yuri's Alpha peer group, "normal" was showing off and posturing to attract an Omega like that as a mate, regardless of whether or not the Omega was bonded already. To be put aside and condescended to by being treated as a child rather than an eligible breeding partner should be humiliating.

Except…

He felt… _wanted_.

His sore throat became even tighter than when Victor had punched him there.

The warm feeling from where the familial marker had been placed seemed to trickle down his spine, chasing all the fight from him. Uncertain, he took a deliberate breath through his nose, tentatively sinking into the nesting scent.

Yuri knew he could be… _trying_ , even on his good days. His social skills left something to be desired and he wasn't a very nice person. But for some reason, Katsudon wanted him in this tiny family that he was building with Victor. Those two airheads actually gave a fuck about him. It was something Yuri had wanted in the back of his mind ever since his classmate came to school that day complaining about his dam and sire caring about him too much.

So he just… let it happen.

It was one of the most difficult moments of his short life to rearrange his identity to include this claim from his new surrogate dam. Mila, a fellow Alpha, would tell him later through squinted eyes that his scent seemed brighter; not different, just… happier.

But for now:

"Sleep," he heard the warm Omega voice above him say.

And Yuri did.

* * *

It was literally just luck that let Yuri communicate with the outside world while the delicate-looking Omega slept. His phone vibrated with a call and Yuri moved as little as possible whilst scrambling to make it stop. The screen showed it to be Yakov calling and Yuri switched the setting to Do Not Disturb, sending a text to his coach before the call even got fully declined.

 _Can't talk. Long story. Won't make practice._

Yakov sent back: _What? You were meant to come back after you got your skates!_

 _Well that obviously didn't happen._

A sudden wave of exhaustion rolled over him and Yuri yawned, unceremoniously falling asleep again next to Yuuri in the middle of the Omega's nest.

* * *

It was only a few minutes later that he woke up, he realized, checking the time on his phone. It had barely been two hours since he'd shown up for his skates and gotten something else. He slowly tried to move away from the feral Omega holding him hostage, but he barely got to the edge of the nest before he felt his nest-dam jerk awake. Yuuri poked him hard on the crown where his new familial-mark lingered and Yuri didn't even realize he was doing it when he let out a sulking whine typical of your average six-year-old pup. The young Alpha was slightly embarrassed by the noise, but not very concerned; it was just _Katsudon_ there, after all. He stopped trying to get up, however, and Yuuri rewarded him with water.

Yuri was taking huge gulps from the jug when there was a distant knocking at the front door. That serial-killer expression returned to Yuuri's face and he resumed his spot near the door again.

"Victor! Yuuri!"

Yuri groaned, recognizing Yakov's voice. He really should have given the man at least an edited version of events to calm him down. Next to him, Yuuri was starting to lose his shit again; Yuri knew better than to try to talk him down by this point.

He heard Victor let out the most intimidating roar in Alpha history from the living room and gagged to himself as Yuuri sighed a low cooing noise in response to his Alpha's fantastic protection. Those two had better not trigger the resumption of the Omega's heat or Yuri would throw himself out the bedroom window, fuck the consequences.

Reaching for his phone, Yuri called Yakov. His coach picked up on the first ring.

" _Yuri!"_ The man was so clearly relieved that Yuri felt guilty all over again. _"Are you alright? I'm at Victor's apartment, but Yuuri must be in heat because Victor's completely insensible."_

"I know." Yuri grimaced. "I heard you knocking. I'm in here too."

" _What_!?"

"I'm okay," he added quickly. _Well, mostly_. "I got here right before Katsudon went into heat and… it's a long story, but the heat got converted into a nesting, so I'm okay."

" _A nesting,"_ Yakov repeated incredulously. _"And Yuuri hasn't killed you!?"_

"Ah—" The blush from before came back full-force. "Katsudon put me _in_ the nest… and won't let me leave."

After nearly twenty seconds of silence, Yuri wondered if the call had been dropped. He took the phone away from his ear to look at the screen; no, Yakov was still there.

"Can you get me out of here?" Yuri half-demanded, pressing the phone back to his cheek. "Katsudon is fucking scary."

" _You're out of your mind if you think I'm going in there!"_ On-cue, Victor let lose another warning snarl outside the door. _"You'll have to wait it out. You're safe there if Yuuri has decided to protect you."_

"Wait it out? For how long?"

" _These things tend to take two to three days—"_

"Two to three days!?" Yuri couldn't believe it. "And what the hell am I supposed to do stuck here for that long!?"

" _IF YOU WEREN'T SO CARELESS WITH YOUR SKATES AND ALLOWING VICTOR TO PICK UP AFTER YOU, YOU WOULDN'T HAVE THESE PROBLEMS!"_

He jerked the phone away from his ear, glowering furiously. So what, was this Yuri's fault?

 _Tch, barely!_

" _You had better sleep in there, because when you get back, I'll work you until you die!"_ And, apparently satisfied that Yuri would be alright in the couple's care, Yakov hung up on him.

"Bastard!" Yuri shouted after him. It was doubtful that the coach could hear him through so many walls, but he still felt better having said it.

Yuri continued to seethe silently for several seconds until he figured out that Yuuri was watching him with those same ultra-dilated eyes. His posture screamed desperate agitation and he seemed like he both wished to guard Yuri with his life as well as hunt Yakov down and use his freshly peeled skin as another lining for his nest.

"I'm alright!" Yuri blurted out upon realizing this. He quickly continued, realizing that Yuri could just as easily call to Victor and send the dumbass sprinting after their coach. Unlike a heat wherein an Omega would bend over backward (and forwards, against a wall, on their knees…) to please an Alpha, during a nesting, Alphas were designed by nature to be human shields, if necessary; disposable. The number of Alphas vastly outnumbered Omegas, so nature really didn't care if an Alpha or five died in the course of protecting a child since the species would perpetuate regardless with a dozen Alphas available to take their place. Instinct would demand that an Alpha defend their nesting Omega and spawn; literally any cost was acceptable to achieve this.

"Let's, uh…" Yuri paused, casting around for a distraction. "Let's nest! This is a good nest; we should nest."

His rambling clearly pleased the dangerous Omega and before Yuri was aware of it, the blond found himself buried under at least five layers of fabric. He sulked, arms crossed, as Yuuri piled on a sixth—it was already ninty degrees, what the hell!?—and cursed Yakov's name through a thick wave a sleepiness.

"Should have… let… dumbass-Victor go for… it," he yawned to himself without malice. His eyelids drooped despite his efforts and eventually the nesting Omega's scent overpowered him as nature had designed it to do.

Really, belonging somewhere… wasn't so bad.


	2. We Need to Talk About Yurio

**Unintentionally Yours**

 _articas_ursula (AO3)_

 _artica's-ursula (FFN)_

* * *

Chapter 2: We Need to Talk About Yurio

* * *

 _Yurio_.

Yuuri jerked awake, tense and wild-eyed. Without thinking, he tugged urgently at his bond with Victor.

 _Alpha. I need my Alpha._

A loud crash sounded from the living room, followed shortly by the door to the bedroom being ripped open.

"Yuuri!" Victor shouted, throwing his head from one side to the other, freezing when his eyes landed on the small Omega. His chest was bare and the loose sweats from the night before slung low on his hips. Despite this, he looked terrible—his neck was red and swollen from where Yuuri had gripped him and he clearly hadn't slept if the pale, oily flesh of his face was any indication.

"He's gone—our pup—oh _please_ —"

"Darling," Victor soothed, embracing Yuuri carefully. His fingers ran lightly through the brunet's soft hair. "It wasn't real. Please don't worry."

Hardly comforted, Yuuri tilted his head up from where he'd buried it in his Alpha's strong arms. "What? Victor, our—!"

"You're confused, my love." Victor bit his lip. "We... didn't. We didn't breed. Please forgive me for not getting you pregnant."

Every time after their coupling, Victor's Alpha mind forced him to spit out those words of shame despite Victor himself logically knowing that they were not yet ready for children. Yuuri's birth control implant was ever-present as a tiny bump felt under the silky skin of his upper left arm. Still, every heat that ended without Yuuri becoming pregnant by him was humiliating to his Alpha instincts. Knowing from Yuuri's scent that the Omega was not filled with his heir made Victor's heart ache. Only apologizing over and over and receiving Yuuri's forgiveness in turn seemed to be of any help.

Disoriented, Yuuri could do little more than cling to Victor. That couldn't be true. His instincts were telling him an entirely different story, but... no, that couldn't be right either…

The narrative from his Omega mind was bizarre. He had fallen pregnant, nested, given birth, and had his fifteen-year-old child stolen in the space of about twenty-four hours?

"It's too fast," he admitted, closing his eyes tightly. "I don't understand."

"Yurio arrived to collect his skates just before your heat." Victor rubbed his wrist agitatedly over the scent glands on Yuuri's neck as he spoke. The musky aroma made Yuuri sigh, boneless. "It was an accident."

Despite his mate's assurances and his own understanding of the logic, hot tears made his large eyes burn as he struggled to hold them back.

"I nested," he whispered.

Victor just held him tighter.

Omegas built nests regularly to carry out their heat, but the process of nesting for the purpose of preening was indescribably personal. Victor recalled Yuuri doing this only once before, locking him out of their bedroom to preen for nearly three days. Victor had thought he'd gotten Yuuri pregnant for sure. He remembered not eating or sleeping the entire time his Omega hid, drunk on the ecstasy of impregnating his mate. The crash that had come when Yuuri had finally called to him had been devastating; he'd swooped down on the sweet brunet to scent him, only to realize his mate was childless.

There had been a lot of crying that night.

"He's ours now, Victor... and I still want him."

The silver-haired star skater sighed, tearing his fingers through his hair. He was exhausted. Yuri's departure had abruptly brought about the end of the confusing heat/nesting period, which meant typically that Victor and Yuuri would sleep for a day and a half before resuming their lives. With his submissive mate so keyed up, it was clear that rest was not possible.

"Alright," Victor relented. "Let's eat and then—"

"No, _now_!"

A warning growl rumbled in Victor's threat.

Yuuri hissed back.

Well, Victor couldn't have _that_. He darted forward, quick despite being awake so long, and pinned Yuuri to the floor. His hands held the Omega's shoulders down and their legs twisted together.

Victor stared Yuuri down, their noses almost touching. His aqua eyes radiated dominance as well as love.

It took only a second or so for Yuuri to avert his gaze, offering his neck in submission.

"I apologize," said Yuuri softly.

Victor surveyed the brunet careful, searching for further signs of mutiny.

"Be patient, darling. With Yurio, you must go slowly."

"Yes, that's right… I'm sorry."

Victor nuzzled Yuuri's neck, just over his mating mark. It had healed over and faded somewhat since he'd repeated it two months ago. This heat was supposed to have been their opportunity for Victor to renew his claim on the Omega, reinforcing his own scent on Yuuri's skin to ward away any other potential suitors. Victor's body had been preparing all week to carry out the mark's restoration, producing higher, more potent levels of claiming pheromones in response to Yuuri's growing pre-heat scent. He wanted to bite his fingernails nervously as he thought of the normalized scent levels he awoke with this morning when Yuuri called for him. The window had passed. There wasn't nearly enough to tag Yuuri as his now. They would need to await Yuuri's next heat or Victor's next rut.

"Um, can we eat?" his Omega asked from beneath him, lovely honey eyes making Victor's heart ache with love.

Shaking off his worry, Victor smiled foolishly down at his mate; the love of his life.

 _My Yuuri._

Leaning down, Victor gently engaged Yuuri's plush pink lips in a tender kiss. It was as soft and innocent as their first time together when Yuuri had tripped over his words but finally whispered, "P-please be gentle."

 _God_ , Victor was so in love with this man.

"…Yes," replied the Alpha after a moment, recalling the question. Pushing himself to his feet, the silver-haired skater rotated his shoulders with a series of _crack_ s before offering his hands to Yuuri.

The brunet raised his arms and Victor pulled him up, purposely tugging a little too hard so Yuuri stumbled into him.

"H-hey!" Despite himself, Yuuri couldn't help but laugh as his mate picked him up and spun him just as he did in their couples' skate routine.

Victor grinned, winking cheerily as he set Yuuri down again. "Let's eat!"

* * *

"I will pay you, in cash, to call Victor 'daddy'."

"SHUT UP, WITCH!"

Mila just snickered at Yuri, leaning further over the half-wall separating the squishy floor mats from the surface of their home rink. "Well then? What did they say this morning?"

Yuri dug the front of his skate guard moodily into the foam floor. "Nothing."

Mila squinted at him, unconvinced. "Well what did _you_ say?"

"Nothing." Yuri hesitated, seeing the redhead open her mouth again with a sarcastic expression. "Look, no one said anything because I fucking left before they woke up, okay? Can we drop this!?"

The screech of disbelief made the blond wince and hop backwards, away from Mila's flailing arms.

"Left!? What does _that_ mean!?"

 _It means I'm a coward_ , Yuri sulked, ignoring the muffled curses as Mila vaulted off the ice and jammed on her own skate guards, promising to chase him down and do something to his ankles that he didn't quite catch. He was just getting to the good part of feeling sorry for himself when gravity's grip on him seemed to just let go.

"AH! LET ME DOWN YOU UGLY HAG!"

"Explain yourself to me before I drop you on your head!"

His resistance lasted for about three seconds after that. The blond swore at her experimentally, attempting to judge if she'd really do it. When Mila flipped him upside-down to hold him by the ankles, Yuri shrieked, flailing madly.

"YOU'LL REALLY DROP ME!"

"That's right, you little troll!"

Yuri preferred to think of it as taking the high road as he finally conceded to her, flailing briefly to avoid falling when Mila abruptly released him.

"Well tell me this—are you going to keep the bond?"

Yuri blinked, still breathing hard from practically being tossed. "Eh…?"

Snorting, Mila shoved him lightly. "You haven't even thought of that!"

"It was only yesterday!" Yuri defended himself.

"If you really don't want it, I'm sure Yuuri would eventually understand. After all, he probably would have killed you during the nesting once he realized you didn't take the bond because you aren't his pup."

"Yeah," agreed Yuri, unconvinced. Even as Mila spoke of dissolving this random and unplanned thing, Yuri felt like his heart may explode. "Well, at least Katsudon isn't coming today. He never shows up the day after one of his _things_."

Mila stared at him like he was the stupidest person she'd ever met. "You don't know what you're saying at all. You're a fool if you think he won't come looking for you… Oh, and look at that."

Turning around fast, Yuri nearly knocked himself over in his efforts to turn back around and pretend nothing was happening as Katsuki Yuuri walked slowly passed the one-way windows lining one side of the building. Victor flittered around him looking worried, though the silver-haired man didn't look too great himself. A thick scarf was wrapped around his neck, probably more to cover up the bruising from Yuuri's hands than because it was cold and even from a distance it was obvious that he was exhausted.

Looking suspiciously at the redheaded skater, Yuri couldn't help but ask, "How did you know they'd show up?"

"An Omega could be half-dead and would still leave their nest to find their pup if it left," she informed him condescendingly. Then, in a normal tone, she asked, "How do you not know that sort of thing? Don't they teach it in school or something?"

"Katsudon is the only Omega I've ever met! I know some things, but how would I know that?" Yuri grumbled, apprehensively watching the Alpha-Omega couple disappear from view, presumably to enter the main building.

"Because you're _in_ school."

"I have three junior world championships, fool! Plus everything from last year! Of course I miss school a lot!"

Mila just tisked at him. "You're embarrassing Russia. How much do you really not know? Look—" She jerked her head slightly towards the entrance of the rink. "Do you know that? How Yuuri greets a Beta?"

"Heh?" Yuuri squinted in the indicated direction, quickly placing Mila between himself and Yuuri and crouching down in an attempt to use the half-wall to hide as he staved off panic. He wasn't ready to talk to the Japanese Omega—not now, not _yet_! He hadn't even had time to sort out his emotions on the subject, dammit! " _Mila_!"

"He's not looking at you," the redhead countered reasonably. "He's going to talk to Yakov—look."

Yuri had no interest in looking, but he was familiar enough with Mila's savage personality that he knew running from her was not his best option. Besides, huddled here on the floor, he was relatively well hidden from Katsudon unless he walked around the exterior of the ice and literally ran into the blond. Reluctantly, he peered out from over the plexiglass to look where she was pointing.

Just over the thick plastic half-wall, Yuri could see Yuuri walking with a preoccupied air towards Yakov, who was standing by the edge of the ice and writing something in what Yuri recognized as Georgi's skating notebook. Between spotting them outside and now, Victor had somehow disappeared, which made him deeply uneasy because usually the silver-haired skater was hanging off Katsudon like a dead animal.

"Every time they start a conversation, you could put a ruler down and measure out four feet of distance from Yakov's eyes to Yuuri's. Then after they've started talking, sometimes one or the other might move closer or further away."

Yuri frowned, seeing that this was indeed the case. "What? Why?"

"It's old Dynamic tradition. I'm not surprised Yuuri follows it—I heard he comes from a very rural part of Japan. It's an Omega's way of showing deference to a Beta; they give Alphas even more space than that."

Yuri scowled at the floor with a sour expression; Dynamics—it was so complicated. This familial bond… Would Katsudon even want it? It wasn't as though Yuuri was exactly in his right mind when it had been placed. Besides, everyone said he was a "proper" Omega with his mild demeanor and perfect etiquette. A mated Omega like that would probably rather have his own pup than recycle someone else's leftovers; in that sense, everyone knew Yuri was no prize.

"Look, look!" Mila practically knocked him over, forcing his jaw to turn towards Yuuri once more. Still speaking with Yakov, he seemed to pause mid-sentence, and turn as Georgi, their Alpha rinkmate, shouldered out from the locker room nearby and made a beeline to where the two stood, clearly freshly showered and dressed in street clothes.

Georgi seemed not to notice Yuuri, but Yuuri certainly noticed him and averted his eyes when Georgi came to a stop.

"If Yuuri had been the one to approach, he would have stopped to keep five feet of distance—to the inch, probably—between Georgi's teeth and Yuuri's left scent gland on his neck. Georgi is being a clueless bastard, though, and isn't stopping right at all; it's actually kind of rude. You can tell Yuuri's inner Omega prefers to mate with males because he bares the left and not right side of his neck. Oh, and look—he will never make eye contact or speak with Georgi unless Georgi speaks to him first. But I already know for a fact that he's on his way home to watch Anya skate from France on television like a creep, so he won't stop to talk to Yuuri… Yeah, see, there goes Georgi collecting his notes from Yakov and there goes Yuuri, putting his head back in a neutral stance. He probably doesn't even think about it when he's doing it."

Yuri, dumbfounded from seeing everything Mila said come to pass, turned back to stare at her with wide eyes. "T-That's complicated! And he does that every time?"

"To males that can breed him—" Mila laughed when Yuri cut her off with a scream of disgust, covering his ears with his hands and making gagging sounds. "Oh come on, Yuri, it's interesting!"

"I'm a minor, you witch!"

She just laughed at him again, kicking off her skate guards and pushing off the ice to swizzle backwards.

Unfortunately for Yuri, there was no unhearing what Mila had told him and, for the rest of that day (and forever afterward), the blond had basically no choice but to notice every time Yuuri reacted to anyone. Now that he was observing it, it didn't take long for Yuri to figure out that Katsudon had very specific patterns of behavior. Yuuri gave all females the distance associated with their status, but neglected to expose his neck to any of them. He also didn't bother to avert his eyes, greeting Mila with full eye contact—though only speaking after she hailed him first.

As all this occurred, Yuri pointedly kept at least fifteen feet between them at all times, refusing to admit that it hurt when Katsudon made no effort to close the gap and stuff him full of snacks like he usually did. Practice continued on, but Victor remained unaccounted for, raising Yuri's suspicions.

Aside from slight habits that had previously gone unnoticed, there was very little variation in how Yuuri interacted with their female rinkmates. Yuuri's behavior was just the same as it had always been, to Yuri opinion, and he'd nearly bleached the traumatizing conversation from his mind when the local men's ice hockey team began trickling in on the benches just outside the wall surrounding the ice.

The squad of twelve disgustingly sweaty males drenched in Alpha pheromones slapped on their pads and shouted to each other as the last of the figure skaters left the ice, chased away by the Zamboni. There were three open exits off the ice, but Yuri, who loathed loud voices intensely, was so thoroughly off-balanced by the hockey player's presence in what had previously been his quiet home territory with just his rinkmates plus Katsudon that he angrily started towards them.

Someone said "Yurio" in a normal volume but with an underlying note of warning, and he hesitated; then, continued. A couple of the hockey players had already glanced at him and taken notice of his initial movements towards them but turned away in disinterest soon enough. Yuri's inner Alpha was convinced that there was no physically possibly way to turn around now. The rival Alphas had seen him and his instincts demanded that he not show weakness by fleeing towards another exit.

As he approached the small gate, however, his hearing picked up on the tail end of the hockey players' conversation that made him narrow-eyed with temper.

"—wonder if that Omega out there takes it as well as it looks like he does."

 _They were talking about his dam!_

Slicing up a wave of shaved ice as he hockey-stopped at the gate, Yuri was satisfied to note that some of it had sprinkled the skates and hair of the Alpha that had been speaking, hunched over doing up his laces directly in front of the opening.

The brunet man's head jerked up to snarl at him, previous task forgotten as he roughly brushed away the snow from his crown.

"Hey! Watch yourself, you little shit!"

"You'll fucking live," Yuri sneered, strutting smoothly from the ice onto solid ground. Later—but not now—he would look back and wonder what the fuck he'd been thinking. There was no logic to taking on twelve fully-grown adults, but to his chaotic Alpha mind, thrown in flux by the morning's events, it seemed like a grand idea.

They were speculating about his nest-dam; he couldn't walk away from that sort of insult. He'd rip their faces off with his teeth first!

"Clear out, baby-Alpha," one of the more composed men ordered Yuri, standing up to shove the Alpha Yuri had engaged away from the teen. "Don't bother, Stanislav, he's just a child."

The man—Stanislav—scowled, pushing the other hockey player away but heeding the warning. He cursed Yuri liberally, however, and the air became thick with aggressive Alpha scent, warning Yuri to stay away.

The smart thing would have been for Yuri to just leave, but his Alpha mind, still pleased by the brand new familial bond, wouldn't hear of it. Yuri worked furiously to find the right response, and eventually did—recalling a quality insult from a verbal spat he'd witness between Chris and some drunken Beta that had lost to him in competition two years ago that he had found particularly impressive.

Without prefacing it, Yuri sneered the word that Victor had forbidden him from ever repeating. The closest meaning was eunuch, but that wasn't quite it either. The Russian word meant unable to knot, and thus, unable to breed. When said to an Alpha, this was a horrific insult and wars had been fought over such a slur.

As expected, Stanislav whirled around. "What the fuck did you say to me!?"

A fresh wave of aggressive pheromones hit him like a punch to the chest and, for the first time, it occurred to Yuri that he might just actually be in over his head. The thought had no sooner occurred to him than he heard the sharp sound of blades cutting to a stop on ice.

Katsuki Yuuri had arrived.

The group of twelve hockey players were all blond or with medium-brown hair. To them, Yuuri was an exotic beauty with his Asian features and soft-looking dark hair slicked back in tousled strands. His fair skin was flushed pink with exertion and the costume he'd been practicing in was the one he would wear to the next Grand Prix: a flowing arrangement of white lace strips covered his chest incompletely, leaving glimpses of naked skin when a thin layer of lace would shift. A skin-tight black leotard lined the curve of his hips, disappearing down at his ankles where his skates seemed to glide even as he transitioned to stepping off the ice. His hands fit tightly in black leather gloves.

Even if any of these hulking beasts held no lust for the male form (not a one of them was making it clear if that was the case), it seemed impossible that their inner Alpha would decline a closer look at this young and deliciously flexible Omega.

"Yurio," was all he said, but his silken Omega voice made the hockey giant back off the teenager immediately. His tone held no reprimand; it was the same way anyone would say "yes" or "no" to a neutral question.

And while Yuri wanted nothing more than to turn around and kick this guy in the balls with the blade of his skate, he knew his situation was precarious enough as it was with them being vastly outnumbered. So, nursing his bruised ego, the young Alpha put his nose in the air and stormed past the group of men, but not without _accidentally_ knocking over one of the hockey sticks propped up against the wall with his elbow.

Yuri looked over his shoulder arrogantly, eager for the owner of the stick to pick a fight, but found that none of the Alphas gave a shit about hockey anymore. Their eyes collectively followed the pretty Omega's movements as the brunet slowly followed to keep their attention off Yuri. Yuuri's naturally slender body was wonderful to watch both on and off the ice with a fuller curve to his hips as well as a pert rear.

His head was tilted demurely to the right, expose the scent gland of his life side.

Irritated at being overlooked as well as his fierce dam's submissive behavior, Yuri opened his mouth to say something rude when he felt something tap him hard on the top of his head—the location of his familial marker.

Victor had arrived.

" _Yuuri_."

At first Yuri thought he was being addressed. He looked quickly up at Victor, who had by now stationed himself in front of Yuri in a defensive stance. He wanted to protest, peeved at not being allowed to fight his own battles, but his Alpha mind wouldn't let him speak—his sire wanted him to be quiet.

Yuri obeyed.

"And what do you suppose this is?" Victor asked with a dangerous smile. He didn't seem to mind being outnumbered, though Yuri could see that Mila, Yakov, and a couple of other Alpha and Beta skaters which were familiar to him had stopped in their movements and were clearly watching closely, debating if they should come to Victor's aid or if it would even be needed.

The air was so thick with the stench of full-fledged Alphas that Yuri had to choke back a cough.

 _Quiet_ ; his sire wanted him to be quiet.

Automatically, Stanislav tossed his head, drawing up to full height and posturing at Victor's challenge. Yuri wondered what the fucking point of _that_ was until he noticed Yuuri, who had become still at Victor's statement of his name, reactively drawing his eyes towards the display of muscle and strength. He didn't seem able to help it.

Spotting this, Victor growled low in his throat and it chilled Yuri to hear such a cold sound. He knew immediately that this was no threat—it was a promise. Somehow, someway, Victor—stupid, airheaded, blade cover-giving, five-time world champion winning _Victor_ —was preparing to engage in a heated fight with some nobody hockey player to defend his Omega's honor.

Though possessing the advantage of numbers, the violence in Victor's vocalizations made one of Stanislav's teammates snap out of his gawking and raise his hands in a pacifying motion. "Wait a minute! Why are you fighting? We've got no problem with you!"

"He said something sexual about Katsudon!" Yuri told-tale immediately.

All eyes fell on Stanislav, whose mouth opened and shut wordlessly like a landed fish. "I—He wasn't even in earshot!" the man protested, flushing. He refused to look over at the Omega. "I'm not some creepy pervert—I swear it!"

"He's not," one of the other hockey player chimed in, standing and picking up his helmet. The majority of tension having passed, most of the team was standing up as well and awkwardly filing onto the empty ice. "But you brought this one on yourself, friend. That's a breeding pair, that is."

"How the shit was I supposed to know that? He doesn't even smell like it!"

Yuri grimaced in his vowed silence, piecing together that his intrusion had been the culprit.

"Sorry, friend." By now, only Stanislav and the negotiator were left standing around. As he spoke, this guy who had appointed himself peacekeeper was ushering his companion towards the entrance to the ice. "An honest mistake. Lesson learned, eh?"

Though clearly not happy about it, Victor nodded jerkily in answer. He had no grounds to attack now that the slight against his Omega had been rescinded. The two hockey players skated off to join their team, leaving the three of them standing there in a cloud of pheromone-soaked air.

Victor, aqua eyes still honed in on Stanislav, gradually relaxed his stance. Eventually he cleared his throat before slapping on his usual carefree smile. "Let's go eat something, okay?"

Yuuri nodded agreeably, resuming his movements. "Yurio," he prompted.

Yuri's teeth clicked shut.

They left for the locker room in silence—Yuri trying to convince himself that Katsudon and Victor weren't chasing him there.

"Stop picking such poor fights."

The blond scowled, stuffing his skating cloths in his bag. He waited irritably for the rest of the lecture and looked up in slightly suspicion when it didn't come. Yuuri stood a few feet away watching him, winding a bright red scarf around his neck with a concerned expression.

Victor, who had given him the criticism, was a larger than life presence by the doorway. His aura commanded their small family's respect and cooperation and his sleek yet powerful arms were crossed in displeasure over his chest.

The two Alphas stood there, locked in a staring contest for a few seconds before Yuri pointedly rolled his eyes, looking away to zip his bag shut and throwing the strap over his shoulder. " _Fine_!"

"Skates?" Yuuri prompted.

Yuri automatically looked at the bench where he'd left them, still working on breaking the habit of hiding his skates all over the place for Victor to fetch later. The blond picked them up by the laces (Makkachin skate covers still present), waving them sarcastically for Yuuri to see. "Can we go now?"

Yuuri and Victor traded smiles, amused, and Yuri fought to hold back a curse. "Can _I_ go now," he'd meant to say, but saying it now would just make him look like an idiot.

"Yes," Katsudon agreed.

Yuri power-walked and/or fled towards the door, throwing himself through it and refusing to look behind to see if his sire and dam were following.

"I want piroshki!" he yelled over his shoulder demandingly. He paused, fists clenching and expression pained. " _Please_ ," he forced out through gritted teeth, not interested in dealing with Victor's annoying stare-down again.

He relaxed upon hearing Victor cheer a little ways behind him. "Piroshki! Have you had it yet, Yuuri?"

"V-Victor!" Katsudon's voice squeaked in protest, and Yuri didn't have to be facing them to know that Victor had probably seized the Omega and clung onto him, spinning them both in a circle.

 _Ugh, what fucking losers._

He was becoming less and less surprised to find that, these days, the thought was more affectionate than malicious.


	3. Dishonorable Practice

**Unintentionally Yours**

 _articas_ursula (AO3)_

 _artica's-ursula (FFN)_

* * *

Chapter 3: Dishonorable Practice

* * *

 _Sochi Grand Prix Final, several years ago_

"I have some concerns."

"I can't stop now," Yuuri replied quietly. He was very pale and his chest rose and fell like a hummingbird. "Even if that's what I wanted to do."

Celestino wrung his hands nervously as they stood just outside the entrance to the viewing room. If Yuuri had to guess, he thought it had more to do with the stress of his only Omega student skating against five Alphas than the actual competition. Over the course of Yuuri's victories this season, his coach's nails had become bitten down to the quick. Each event had made Celestino increasing nervous on Yuuri's behalf, and now that Yuuri would be facing the top Alphas in the world, the Beta looked near fainting.

"I have to go in now," Yuuri told him. Only careful control prevented his distress from being made clear through his scent glands. His large honey eyes stood out in vivid contrast to his nearly bloodless skin as he set his nonetheless determined gaze on the door.

"Okay. Yes." Celestino paused behind him. Then, with more conviction that Yuuri suspected he had on the subject, his coach's voice added, "You are as good as any Alpha, Yuuri. Please remember that."

Without knowing the words that should be said, Yuuri just nodded with the faintest tremor. He had no nerve left to comfort Celestino as well as cull his own raging anxiety, and so did not look back as he moved forward.

As he entered the room, a sudden movement from inside it started Yuuri. He bristled, his stance becoming instinctively defensive, but it became clear soon after that that wasn't necessary. Michele "Mickey" Crispino, the brown-haired Italian skater, had jumped respectfully to his feet upon noticing Yuuri, unashamed as Jean Jacques, or "JJ", of Canada, snickered at the seemingly bizarre display from the background.

"You should show some respect!"

"Mickey, you should relax your chivalry," JJ replied in a condescending tone, going back to examining his own appearance as he positioned his phone for a selfie. "This is why your own sister can't bare to be seen with you any longer."

Wrong-footed, Yuuri nonetheless became more centered in the presence of an Alpha who respected and practiced Dynamic etiquette, even if the European version was unfamiliar to him. Pausing in the doorway, Yuuri delicately bore the left side of his neck, moving his eyes to gaze at the floor and saying nothing. He felt slightly concerned that he was already less than five feet from the Italian Alpha, but it was only because Mickey had been leaning against the wall perhaps three and a half feet from the threshold when Yuuri had entered; surely he would take this into consideration and not consider Yuuri presumptuous.

In Japan, school age Alphas were raised to (and scolded if they did not) move fully into any room they passed into so that any Beta or (more rarely considering the lack of them) Omega could also enter after them and be allowed the opportunity to monitor their proximities upon realizing that they were in the presence of an Alpha. That ruling did not seem to be the standard in Italy, because Mickey continued standing exactly where he was as he addressed Yuuri first.

"You're Yuuri Katsuki, right?" Mickey asked, freeing the Omega to meet his eye. "I've watched you skate. My sister is enchanted by you."

Yuuri couldn't help but look elsewhere once more, a soft flush coloring his cheeks. "That's a wonderful complement. Thank you."

"You're the Omega, right?" JJ cut in, finally putting his phone away and looking Yuuri up and down with interest, though not discourteously. "You've inconvenience me, you know. My coach said it was improper for an eligible Alpha such as myself to be alone in a room with an unmated Omega. He made me wait until Mickey arrived before I could so much as come in here and sit down incase you arrived before Mickey did."

Unsure of what to say to such a statement, Yuuri only blinked. "Um…"

"Aren't you engaged anyway?" interrupted Mickey, annoyed at the braggart. "Isn't that the case only for eligible Alphas?"

JJ just smirked. "Until we marry, I'm still plenty eligible."

Mickey made a disgusted noise from the base of his throat. "I'll remind you only once to stay away from my sister—"

"Oh I'm sure you'll do it more than once—"

The bickering descended from there, and Yuuri soon found that the two Alphas were scarcely paying attention to him at all. Relieved, he silently sighed; this was more than he had hoped for, considering Celestino's words.

"They may treat you unfairly," his coach had warned as they discussed the matter on the flight to Sochi. Yuuri had stared sightlessly out the window as they few over the endless forests of Mongolia. "They may be rude, they may discomfort you. If you truly mean to go against them, you cannot let them break your focus."

To find just the opposite behavior to be true was vitalizing.

That could have lasted, but ultimately didn't.

By the time the fourth person arrived in the room to wait their turn, Christophe Giacometti, who had already drawn the first slot, was already well into his short skate. It had been relatively quite with the occasional comment between JJ and Mickey, and the two Alphas hardly looked around as Cao Bin, a Chinese skater who would go fifth, showed up. Yuuri had competed against him occasionally at Asian meets, but the two hadn't spoken. Still, he gracefully performed the movements of an Omega submitting to an Alpha, which Cao didn't even seem to notice. His eyes were on his phone and his fingers were typing out a text.

When nothing in particular happened right away, Yuuri forced his attention back to watching the live showing of the Swiss skater's routine and tried to calm his pounding heart. He had drawn the second slot earlier, which wasn't his preference, but at least it wasn't first or last.

"That won't work," JJ suddenly stated in a taunting way half a minute later.

It seemed like he must be referring to what was happening on the television screen as Chris progressed in his program to a double jump. Despite the Canadian's words, Chris landed them both cleanly. Yuuri looked over at him to see what JJ would make of that, only to become very still.

"That's an annoying thing to do," Mickey complained next, but said nothing else as he continued to watch the program with little more than a scrunched nose.

Yuuri's heart sped up.

Being near the door, as Omegas preferred to be, Yuuri was the greatest distance from Cao Bin, but certainly not great enough as the Alpha's heavy pheromones slowly saturated the air. To the other Alphas in the room, the scent must have announced an invitation to fight; to Yuuri, it was an intention for something very different.

 _Mate._

 _Pull it together!_

 _Alpha._

 _I'm here to skate. I've worked so hard!_

To his dismay, this Alpha's hormones were very pleasing to his Omega senses. The Chinese skater must be relatively close to a rut, though this was certainly not the overwhelming advance of an Alpha actually _in_ a rut.

Yuuri both cooed and tried to prevent himself from cooing. The result was a short, cloying sound that made Yuuri clap his hands over his lips in a horrified effort to take it back.

Immediately, the attention of all three Alphas locked unwaveringly onto him.

Yuuri, firmly reining in his instincts, removed his hands to hiss at them.

Surprisingly, JJ was the first to retreat.

"Harassing an Omega is absolutely _not_ JJ's style," he declared to the room, tearing his gaze away from the agitated Yuuri. He tossed his head in the way of an Alpha preparing to oppose another before addressing himself to Cao. "You're being very rude and I insist that you stop this right now!"

"The Omega was rude first," Cao insisted, his face pulled into a frown. He had long-since put away his phone. "He ignored my entrance. That is a slight I cannot forgive right away."

"I did not!" Yuuri hissed. His pearl teeth flashed and his thickly lashed eyes were narrowed in a fresh wave of offense that anyone might accuse him of such a gaffe. His beauty was highlighted in anger. "You were on your phone and failed to acknowledge me. It shows poor breeding and the scent of an Alpha so unworthy is making me nauseous!"

Cao lunged at him, only to be intercepted by Mickey, who shoved him violently back.

Then the yelling started.

His Omega mind couldn't understand why Yuuri would want to fight its good advice. Despite his claims, it really was an intoxicating scent. This was an Alpha looking to mate, clearly; he was vying for Yuuri's favor by producing those wonderfully domineering Alpha scents.

Yuuri pinched his nose in an attempt to shut it down and avoid breathing in more of those devilish pheromones. This was the curse of an unmated, unbred Omega. His pupils were so dilated that even the slightest amount of light stung like acid, but this wasn't his heat and he still had mind enough to overpower his instincts.

There was noise as another person joined the chaos; perhaps the final Alpha competing—had Victor Nikiforov arrived? _Please no; please don't let him see me in this humiliating state_ —

The angry arguing paused as a voice paged on the overhead speaker within the viewing room. "On the ice next will be Yuuri Katsuki of Japan. Yuuri Katsuki, please come to the starting point."

 _Oh_.

* * *

Yuuri, now mated and regularly bred by his Alpha, spoke to Yuri over the phone.

 _"Did you get to your hotel okay?"_

Yuri rolled his eyes, wedging the phone between his shoulder and ear as he nudged his suitcase through the door with some difficulty. The tiny space between the threshold and the rest of the room was quite the project to overcome.

"Yeah, yeah. I've traveled a million times on my own, you know!"

 _"Of course."_

Task complete, Yuri tossed himself on the neatly made bed, shifting to actually hold the phone in his right hand. The layover flight from Russia to Switzerland had been delayed enough that he'd had to unexpectedly stay the night at an airport hotel in Poland. The final leg to Geneva had been three hours—still a far cry from the fifteen-hour non-stop flight Katsudon and Victor would take the next day from Japan to Switzerland—and his body felt stiff from the journey.

" _I called Chris to remind him which hotel you are staying at—"_

"Chris?" Yuri interrupted, scowling. He rolled onto his side. "That pervert knows where I'm sleeping?"

" _Yurio,"_ Katsudon warned lightly. _"You should contact him if you have any problems before we get there. I sent you his home address."_

"Probably a whore house."

" _I really wouldn't know,"_ his dam replied in his usual pretty voice and it was so unexpected to hear the prime and proper Omega comment at someone else's expense that Yuri couldn't hold back a snicker. Still, the dry remark seemed like part of a larger agitation with which Yuri was completely unfamiliar with when it came to Katsudon.

Clearing his throat, the blond asked more aggressively than he'd mean to: "So are you fine?"

There was a pause. _"Eh?"_

Goddammit, he wanted Yuri to say it _again_!? "Just… You sound like something's the matter and you'd better tell me what it is right now!"

" _O-oh. Well, I do wish we had gone with you,"_ Katsudon admitted after a pause. His voice was colored with anxiety, which Yuri recalled he had issues with anyway. _"I wish you weren't having so many traveling problems so far away. When I saw online that your flight was delayed in Warsaw I tried to call, but your phone was on airplane mode I think."_

Yuri frowned, propping his chin up with the pillow in his arms. His dam was worried about him—that much was obvious. What a foreign feeling. He could count on one hand the number of people that genuinely cared enough to stay up at night agonizing about where in Europe he was. The Omega was right; he had kept his phone in flight mode, but only because he was still getting used to the idea that Yuuri might want to be informed of what had happened. It just hadn't occurred to him to bother his dam. He rearranged his travel itinerary all the time without informing anyone; there had never been anyone to inform except his grandfather who barely understood technology enough to take phone calls when he actually remembered to keep his phone nearby.

"I forgot to switch it back to accepting calls," Yuri said guiltily, recalling the eight missed calls and voicemails, plus eleven texts all inquiring about his wellbeing in increasingly distressed tones as his listened to them chronologically. His phone had flooded with the notifications when he'd finally remembered to adjust his settings in the hotel lobby downstairs.

" _That's fine! I shouldn't have worried so much; it's overbearing,"_ Yuuri rushed to assure him; but no, it wasn't alright. The Omega had been distraught and they both knew it.

Yuri was no genius in interpreting feelings, but Katsudon was clearly a mess from being so far away. It was too bad, really, since the trip to his hometown had been meant as a relaxing time after so much stress lately. Not quite ready to admit he cared, Yuri nonetheless thought he had a good idea to calm his dam down.

Bringing the phone to where he could see it, Yuri touched the screen for FaceTime.

He heard Katsudon's soft _"oh!"_ of surprise as the request appeared on his phone in Japan. It didn't take long for Yuuri to answer, bringing up the camera to beam at Yuri from within a dark room.

 _"Yurio!"_

"Hi," he groused, but didn't correct the nickname's usage. He squinted into the screen. "What time is it there anyway?"

Katsudon rubbed his eyes under his glasses. _"I'm not sure—late."_

"Sorry," Yuri muttered uncertainly. He knew the pair desperately needed sleep after the chaos he'd caused. Maybe Katsudon could sleep now that he'd verified that Yuri was alive. "I can call later—"

 _"No, no!"_ his dam insisted. The camera shifted randomly for several seconds as Yuuri snuck out of his childhood bedroom to avoid waking Victor, who Yuri caught a glimpse of as Katsudon maneuvered. He was still fast asleep on their futon, wrapped around the pillow his Omega had hastily stuffed into his chest to allow him an escape from the clingy human-octopus.

 _"I'm glad you called,"_ Yuuri continued at a normal volume compared to the low whisper he'd conducted their conversation in before he'd stepped outside into the garden and closed the sliding door. His eyes flickered over the Russian skater's face and his voice seemed less high-strung upon visually confirming for himself that Yuri was in one piece. _"Our flight lands in Geneva around eleven hundred tomorrow."_

Yuri scoffed. "I know that! You gave me a hard copy of the itinerary _and_ texted it to me."

 _"That's true."_ The brunet laughed; then frowned. _"Are you sleeping alright? You don't look great."_

"Tch, its fine."

 _"Your eyes have huge bags,"_ Katsudon pointed out worriedly. His bottom lip caught uneasily between his teeth.

Yuri hesitated, finally deciding to share something mildly personal with his frantic dam. "If you must know, nosy, I don't like to sleep in hotels."

 _"Really?"_

"Everyone has a key to your room! The receptionist, the maids—how about if the guest before you went out and made a copy of the key card to come back later, huh? Anyone could fucking stab you in your sleep."

The Omega seemed agitated by this viewpoint. _"Well. I wish we had arrived at the same time—"_

"I don't need a babysitter!"

 _"Tonight, try to sleep. The Geneva Residency Hotel is very safe—I researched it a lot since you're there on your own."_

"Whatever; I just couldn't take sedatives in Warsaw since I didn't want to sleep through leaving the hotel for my flight."

In Japan, Yuuri cleared his throat. _"Well, I packed you something to help you. I hope you don't mind."_

Yuri peeked up. "Sleeping pills?"

 _"Ah—sort of."_

 _Must be some traditional Japanese sleep medicine or whatever._

 _"T-try to sleep with them, okay?"_

Yuri narrowed his eyes in suspicion at the new nervous and hurried quality to Katsudon's voice.

"Yeah, alright."

 _"We'll be there soon!"_

"Okay..."

Yuri felt like he should say more to his dam but nothing really came to mind. He felt like Katsudon was getting ready to say something sappy or even mention their bond—a topic Yuri had consistently avoided—and didn't think he could handle that just yet.

" _Also… Yurio—"_

The blond abruptly hung up.

The guilt from stressing Yuuri out and then hanging up on him followed Yuri as he gathered up the supplies he'd need and left to walk a block or so down the street to the Geneva National Ice Arena. Yuri had never been there but the directions were simple enough to follow and he could pinpoint the exterior of the building by sight alone from Chris's Instagram photos. This was the Swiss skater's home rink and he had flaunted it shamelessly on social media while posing seductively in front of the huge glass entrance doors the day the calls were sent out for the Swiss Invitational.

Yuri had reported the photo as inappropriate, just to be petty.

A string of French made Yuri stare nonplussed at the man stationed at a table under the banner _enregistrement_.

"Registration?" Yuri asked carefully.

The Beta smiled. "Ah, English! Very well. Your name is?"

"Yuri Plisetsky."

"Russia," he noted, typing the name quickly. "Please, which class?"

"Men's single skate."

Yuri waited, glancing around the moderately busy skate rink. The building was closed to the public, allowing only those picking up their registration passes and whatever work crews were necessary to prepare for the competition. Three women were testing out the lighting overhead, dimming and brightening the stadium, pausing to shout angrily at each other in German before doing it all again. A group of skaters he didn't recognize were lounging around the indoor café's seating area despite it being closed. A few competitors had even taken the opportunity to claim the ice, getting in some last-minute practice.

Suddenly, a pair of arms caught him up, and Yuri found himself being forced against a chest clad in a Switzerland athletics jacket. He struggled in this man's grasp, not caring that he was clawing scratches into Chris's skin.

But the Swiss skater was a fully-grown Alpha and he handled Yuri easily even as he smiled a bright, clueless smile.

"Here is my guest!"

"PUT ME DOWN BEFORE I TEAR YOUR EYES OUT!" Yuri screeched, flailing ineffectively as Chris held him at arm's length to avoid his fists.

"You're so unpleasant," the Swiss skater complained. "Ouch!" he added, dropping the blond when Yuri's foot finally landed a hit to the man's thigh.

"Don't pick people up like that! I'll castrate you if you try again!"

"That's not a good way to greet your new chaperone."

"Tch, now I know you're delusional." Yuri picked up the plastic badge that had been slid across the tabletop towards him by the now-staring Beta before turning to face Chris once more. "Aren't you taking this 'home ice' too seriously? It doesn't make you anyone's chaperone."

Chris shot him a superior smirk. "Ah, but Yuuri did. He called and told me to take good care of you until he and Victor arrive! That must mean you have to do what I say, right? I'll be sure to take _very_ gentle care of you…"

"I don't need to be groped until he gets here! Also, Katsudon isn't in charge of me!"

Chris just stuck his hands on his hips and laughed. "Sure, sure! Wow, Yuuri must have his hands full all the time with an annoying brat like you around!"

Yuri aimed a kick at him again, but Chris dodged it.

"No manners, though. I'll blame that on Victor." And, as though Yuri hadn't just tried to bodily injure him, Chris reeled him in with a firm arm around the teen's shoulders. "Don't you know the gossip, though?"

"I don't want to know your pervert gossip!"

"But I want to know if Victor knows that Cao Bin is here," Chris pouted.

It took a moment, but finally Yuri placed the name. "Cao Bin from the Sochi Grand Prix Final years ago? Why would Victor care if he's here; that guy is a loser. He placed fourth."

Chris's eyes turned round. "But don't you know? He lost his sponsors for conduct issues that year!"

"Conduct?" echoed Yuri. "Like fighting?"

"Like _snowing_."

The explanation that followed was shocking. He knew that this guy had participated in the Sochi Grand Prix Final with Victor and Yuuri. He hadn't known about how Cao had almost compulsively farmed out Alpha pheromones—known as "snowing"—in the viewing room that year where the skaters waiting their turn would watch the live coverage of their competitors.

Chris told him that the Alphas had found it irritating but not enough to risk starting a full-on dominance fight right before the final. On the other hand Yuuri, as usual the only Omega, had been forced to try and shake it off or else risk going into the docile, distracted mindset of an unmated Omega drunk on the instinct to be bred. It was a dirty trick but because there was no proving it hadn't been an accident borne of adrenalin, there was nothing that could be done.

"Nothing to be done?" Yuri echoed, incredulous. "He destroyed Katsudon's concentration and caused him international humiliation from those shitty missed jumps! That's cheating!"

Uncharacteristically sober, Chris tapped his chin. "I think now you know that Yuuri is facing his own problems as an Omega in an Alpha-dominated sport."

The blond frowned and opened his mouth to agree.

"Hello, I am registering."

They hadn't moved very far away from the registration table, and while plenty of skaters had come and gone during their discussion to sign in, none of them bore the name—

"Cao Bin," the Chinese skater stated when asked.

"Don't be crazy, Yuri!" Chris hissed when the blond spun around to have a look at the asshole that belonged to that train wreck of a name. "You can't start anything here! This rink has strict rules against fighting!"

But Yuri didn't care.

"Hey! You!"

Chris moaned in almost physical pain behind him.

"Who the hell invited you?" Yuri demanded, poking Cao hard in the chest when the dark-haired man turned to face him. "You planning to snow the air again? I heard you retired in disgrace or something."

Cao frowned, lightly pushing the Russian's hand away. "Do not accuse me. I don't even know you. It was an accident and in the past. I apologized for the occurrence."

"Really?" Yuri jeered. "Did you apologize to Yuuri Katsuki for ruining his program?"

"If the Omega wants to skate with Alphas, fine. But he takes the risks too." Cao shoved Yuri out of his personal space. "It was a natural reaction to stress and you have no right to imply things about it!"

"WHO'S 'IMPLYING,' YOU FUCKING CHEATER!" Yuri shouted, startling the Beta nervously registering the Chinese skater.

It was impossible to say who moved first; even Yuri didn't know the truth. But before anyone could place what was happening, the two Alphas were attempting to tear each other apart there and then on the Swiss ice rink floor.

"Break it up! Break it up right now!"

"Yuri, no!"

"Haha, punch him in the nose, Yuri!"

" _Sara_!"

When three of the private security force officers hired for the event eventually pulled the two apart, an official from the rink on their heels, Yuri took care to take a chunk of Cao's short dark hair with him.

"What is going on here?" demanded the security officer over Cao's howl of pain.

"The madman attacked me!"

"He attacked me first!"

"Yuri, shut up," Chris begged, hiding his eyes with a hand as though frightened to look. "You'll get in more trouble! Can't you just look sorry?"

"Oh, I'm sorry alright. Sorry I didn't hit him harder!"

Chris just groaned as the rink official turned towards him, frowning.

 _Chaperon, defeated._

* * *

Banned pending investigation.

Yuri couldn't believe it.

" _You have a history of unpredictable behavior, and while we would like to be fair to young Alphas maturing into their Dynamic, we have no choice but to temporarily hold you from the Swiss Invitational."_

Chris had tried his best to defend him, insisting that Cao had the worse record and, hey, did they know that guy had snowed an Omega in competition last year?

Even then, the rink official had been unmoved. _"I'm afraid the release of Alpha scent is still quite legal here in Switzerland, considering such release naturally occurs during aggressive or stressful moments. This does not place Mr. Bin under our suspicion; however, he will also be awaiting judgment in this matter. I must ask you to leave the premises at this time, Mr. Plisetsky."_

So now here he was, staring at the ceiling of his hotel room, feeling miserable even as he scrolled through Instagram looking at pictures of cats.

Oh, and his phone battery was dying; just fucking perfect.

Sliding listlessly to the floor, Yuri began tossing things from his suitcase at random in search of the white cord.

And what if he really was banned from competing tomorrow? Would that ban be a part of his skating record forever? The skating community was fairly good at communicating news like this and plenty of people had been uninvited to events due to conduct issues…

Finally, there was his phone charger.

But a sealed ziplock that he didn't recognize was just under it.

Yuri picked it up, confused. He turned it over. He knew for a fact that he hadn't packed this. Opening the plastic bag, he reached in and pulled out what appeared to be a small, neatly folded stack of clothes that he didn't recognize either.

And yet, when he held the first item, a sweater, out in front of him, Yuri knew exactly who had snuck it in.

This was Katsudon's thick gray sweater—the one he wore around his and Victor's apartment that was far too large for him but looked like a warm little tent.

Yuri brought it to his nose and inhaled it like a drug.

"Goddamn it," he sighed, slumping in on himself. This was pathetic; there were no other words for it. He was about to be banned from competing and disgraced yet he couldn't even get by without scenting his "parents".

Also enclosed, he found one of Victor's soft cotton t-shirts. It was some tourist shirt he'd picked up in Katsudon's hometown, much to the Omega's embarrassment. The scent it held was a deeper, earthy smell that he'd become familiar with even before Katsudon had entered their lives.

The last item made Yuri all but dive onto it. It was a knitted scarf, soft to the touch and absolutely radiating the sugary, warm scent that was everything about Yuuri's nest. Yuri recalled the muted green shade in the nest with them, lining the hoard of blankets and laundry. Yuuri had covered him with layer upon layer of bedspreads and this scarf had been right by his head as he had fallen asleep to the sedative that was Katsudon's nesting aroma.

Yuuri had sent him a piece of his _nest_.

Hastily, the blond gathered up the scarf, t-shirt, and sweater before jumping on the hotel bed. He settled under the covers, breathing in the pheromones of his dam and sire.

Things were awful; there was no denying that. Yuri had purposely turned his phone to _do not disturb_ so he wouldn't have to deal with the massive amount of texts and notifications from social media from people tagging him; discussing his impending disgrace no doubt. But at the same time, his stressed-out heart seemed to relax just a little. He felt his exhausted eyes drift closed.

Then, just as it had in the Alpha-Omega pair's apartment, the nesting scent sent him straight to sleep.

* * *

The next day found Yuri with his hands stuffed in his pockets as he slunk around the baggage claim area of Geneva International Airport. Originally it had been the case that Yuri would be practicing when Victor and Yuuri's flight landed. However, things being as they were, Yuri found that he really wanted to see the two—but not because he needed them, dammit!

He waited at the luggage carrousel for nearly half and hour before the flight number that Yuuri had sent him on their itinerary showed up on the "arriving now" screen. A fresh wave of tired and grumpy passengers shuffled over from the doors leading to the arrival terminal, one occasionally spotting their bag and retrieving it.

Yuri craned his neck in search of some sign of silver hair or black glasses, but came up empty.

Victor's suitcase, covered liberally in stupid ice skating sticks as well as cutesy large-eyed poodles, was easy to notice and Yuri fished it off the conveyer belt because what the hell; he wasn't doing anything anyway.

"Yurio!?"

The blond barely had time to blink before he was all but tackled by a blob of enthusiasm in the form of Victor.

"Look, Yuuri, Yurio came to greet us!" he all but wailed in happiness, oblivious to Yuri's frantic attempts at escape.

"Let me go you fucking trash lord!"

Through his flailing he saw Katsudon move towards him at a more sedate pace, covering his mouth to hide his grin. "Victor, you're embarrassing him."

Indeed, people were staring at the spectacle.

One tourist took a picture.

"Still, I thought you'd be practicing at this time," Victor said, releasing Yuri at last.

"Yeah, well," he stalled; this was neither the time nor place to launch into the long explanation of the drama occurring just a few kilometers away at the ice rink. "I wanted to see the city."

"Oh!" Victor brightened further, taking out his phone to power it back on after the flight. "Let's take a selfie now that we've arrived!"

"NO!"

Yuuri and Victor both stared at him, surprised by this strange outburst.

"Sorry?"

"I-I'm hungry!" the teen insisted. He was sure Chris would have texted them by now regarding what had occurred at the ice rink or, if not that, social media would be all over it anyway.

Yuri was pretty sure neither his sire nor dam was buying his excuse but at least they were now more interested in finding out what the fuck his problem was than turning on their phones. He saw Yuuri look to Victor, deferring to his judgment.

Victor shrugged, allowing the strangeness to stand as he snagged Yuuri's suitcase as it passed them on the carousel. Without prompting from Victor, Yuri began hauling Victor's suitcase towards the airport exit. Between them, Yuuri regarded him anxiously, gripping only the strap of his carry-on bag that dug into his delicate shoulder.

 _Well_ , Yuri thought, sighing internally as Victor rambled on about the in-flight movie; Yuuri said little but laughed at times when he wasn't busy eying Yuri with apprehension. _Even if everything goes wrong, at least things can be fine for another hour or so._


	4. Insecurities

**Unintentionally Yours**

articas_ursula (AO3)

artica's-ursula (FFN)

* * *

Chapter 4: Insecurities

* * *

"So. That was worrying."

"Yes," Yuuri replied anxiously, pausing in his pacing of the room's perimeter to tuck a towel from his parents' onsen that Victor had used yesterday into the space between the curtains and windowsill. "Well, what can we think?" Yuuri continued after ensuring that the inside of the towel where the scent was strongest from Victor using it to dry his bare skin was facing perfectly upward.

"Starting a fight like that? It's just…" Yuuri trailed off, carefully selecting another item of Victor's—a lone black glove—to tuck behind the door connecting their room to the hotel hallway.

Victor observed him do this for a while, chin tucked atop his hand. Watching Yuuri ward the room with items that smelled of Victor was soothing like nothing else. He trusted his Alpha's pheromones to dissuade any intruders from entering their temporary territory. The thought satisfied a deeply biological urge that had intermittently bothered him ever since presenting as an Alpha when he was younger.

"Yuuri?" Independent of his Alpha mind, Victor's heartstrings tugged fondly as the Omega turned. "Sit with me," Victor requested.

Setting the rest of the laundry pieces that he'd unconsciously stolen from Victor over the past few days on the bed, Yuuri hesitated as he stepped within Victor's reach. "Um, let me— _oh_!"

He had been reaching for another chair but automatically clung to Victor's upper arm as his mate tugged him cheerfully into his lap. His noise of surprise was faint; Yuuri was far too familiar with Victor's tactile nature to be genuinely shocked.

Victor sighed, closing his eyes and breathing in Yuuri's scent; it was almost dizzingly good. Yuuri delicately adjusted on top of him, shifting his hips to settle more comfortably onto his knees so they would be able to speak eye to eye.

"Careful," Victor teased salaciously, holding Yuuri's slender waist. "You're making it hard to remember you still need to be able to skate tomorrow."

For a moment, there was no reaction. Then—

" _Victor_!" Yuuri shouted, turning red. He attempted to bolt away from the brazen implication, but Victor just held tighter still, laughing.

"Sorry, sorry!"

"You're terrible," Yuuri complained, but he allowed the clinging in any case. The blush hardly faded, however. After a moment, he asked in a more subdued tone, "What should be done about Yurio?"

"I'm not sure." Victor frowned into Yuuri's neck. His breath sent shivers echoing down the brunet's spine. "Is there a specific answer you're waiting for?"

Yuuri hesitated. "I—I couldn't say."

"Yuuri," Victor warned.

And even though that had not quite been the intention, Victor's tone forced the words from Yuuri's reluctant throat. "We… should consult Chris."

Under and around him, he felt Victor's body tense; a bolus of strong Alpha pheromones unconsciously released inches away from his nose at Victor's neck. It was a dominant and demanding fragrance that required the Omega's attention and respect.

Yuuri's Omega mind swooned.

"I'm not pleasing you?" Victor asked evenly.

His Alpha status had been insulted. His Omega wanted another Alpha to discipline their pup; but no, Victor wouldn't allow that. This was _his_ pup that _he_ had bred out of Yuuri and he was handling things just _fine_.

"That's not what I meant; it came out wrong."

"I'm stronger than Chris," Victor informed him, posturing as much as he was able while sitting with the Omega in his lap. His Alpha mind was convinced that Yuuri found him to be lacking and was seeking a new mate. A horrible thought came from his Alpha mind. "Are you… angry that I didn't breed you before?"

 _He thinks I'm infertile; he wants to be pregnant._

Yuuri turned red, ducking his head. "I—I'm on birth control! I'm not expecting anything!"

"Right," Victor murmured, more to himself than anything else.

An uncomfortable silence fell—one that neither was sure how to break.

 _Sterile. Barren._ And then _that word_ he'd forbidden Yuri from ever using after they'd heard some blitzed-out Beta yell it at Chris after losing one year.

After awhile, Yuuri blurted out in a rush: "I apologize."

Startled, Victor looked down at him from where he'd been previously staring off into space. "Why? You haven't done anything wrong."

"I meant that we should call Chris to hear the full story of what happened. Yurio can be a bit… dramatic."

"And Chris isn't?" Victor asked, forcing himself to smile. He was worrying his Omega; that had to stop. "That's a good idea. Can you get my phone?"

"Where is it?" Yuuri asked, looking around. His thighs continued to feel tense.

"In my pocket," Victor purred with the air of one delighted to have been asked.

"Victor!" Yuuri turned red all over again, but at least his anxiety from before seemed to be draining away. Victor saw him bite back a laugh. "I'm not doing that."

Victor pouted. "It's my loss." He shifted Yuuri securely against his chest, pulling his phone from the pocket of his slacks and bringing it around so he could see it over Yuuri's shoulder.

It took unusually long for Chris to answer, ("Is he in hiding now or something?") but when he did, it was with a groan and less than enthused " _What_?"

"Are you hungover?" Victor asked loudly. So maybe he was holding a grudge; oh well.

There were random noises as Chris cursed at him, probably moving the speaker further away from his ear. _"You know, yeah! That hellspawn ruined my day yesterday. I made so many calls for favors to try and save his place for tomorrow but I don't think anything will work."_

Victor twirled a lock of Yuuri's short silky hair restlessly in his fingers. "It's that bad?"

" _Well_ —" Chris began to explain the circumstances. The general outline agreed with Yuri's more expletive-riddled version, but it was clear that the younger skater had glossed over the significant fact that he had begun the scuffle by publicly confronting Cao Bin. There was no lost love between Cao and Victor, especially after Victor did what he did on that day years ago, but he still wished Yuri hadn't taken this task on personally.

" _I hope you'll be careful about this_ ," Chris concluded. " _If Cao tries to use the situation for a little revenge against you, I won't be surprised. You know he's probably still angry, Victor."_

"He lost his sponsors all on his own and I'm not sorry for my part in it. In any case, I don't see what's left to use. The case against Yurio seems very clear."

Yuuri looked at him sharply but said nothing.

" _You know what might help?_ " Chris began with the air of one conducting a sales pitch. _"A call to the committee from Victor Nikiforov, Yuri's sire."_

Victor blinked, not having expected that. On his lap, Yuuri went very still.

 _"That's the case, right?"_ Chris asked after a moment when no one said anything. He sounded carefully neutral. _"He's your pup now?"_

"Ah—it's—" Victor paused to collect himself. "Difficult to explain."

 _"In your own time, then."_ Chris backed off.

"Thank you." A small silence. "We have to consider what you've said. Thanks for watching out for him, Chris."

The Swiss skater laughed self-deprecatingly _. "I don't know. I tried to do the right thing. Sorry it didn't work out."_

"That's not your fault," said Yuuri suddenly. Victor, who hadn't expected that, glanced at him. "Thank you for doing your best," Yuuri went on firmly.

There was stillness on the other end for a moment; probably Chis hadn't realized Yuuri was present throughout the conversation. _"Thanks, Yuuri."_ His voice was much quieter but with something in it that suggested he found peace through those words. _"I really do like Yurio, you know. I never meant for anything like this to happen."_

"I know."

They concluded the call on good terms with Chris, which surprised Victor.

"I thought you'd be angry for what happened on his watch," he admitted after he'd hung up. Of course, he was just as surprised at himself for not challenging Chris then and there to prove to Yuuri that he was the superior Alpha.

"I'm plenty angry," Yuuri replied; he didn't say much more than that. He slipped off Victor's lap and onto his feet. "Will you talk to the committee?"

"Yes." Victor stood too. "Also, I'll speak with Yurio. This behavior… it will get him into trouble—it already has."

Yuuri stood on his toes to kiss Victor chastely; it was warm and innocent. "Let's go to… him."

"Our pup." Yuuri looked around at him. Victor just smiled. "It's okay to say that to me. I know you think about it all the time."

Yuuri hesitated, raising his right index finger to his teeth before quickly stopping himself from biting down. "…He doesn't have your familial mark."

Victor tensed. The muscles in his arms shifted as his hands clenched. _He thinks you're sterile; unable to breed._ "I know."

Sensing that this was a sensitive matter, Yuuri quickly let it go. No Alpha wanted reminding that their claiming scent glands weren't potent enough to continue producing pheromones long enough after a nesting to initial a familial mark or reinforce a mating mark.

Victor didn't need reminding that, technically, his Alpha-claim on Yuuri was no longer detectable and his Sire-claim on Yuri never existed.

* * *

The traveling house arrest began at the Geneva National Ice Arena as Victor dragged a very sour Yuri to wait with him in the registration queue as he picked up his and Yuuri's badges. The silver-haired man was hardly Yuri's favorite person after their argument hours ago and Yuri had taken to pretending Victor didn't exist ever since realizing that he would not be permitted to wander away. In the past minute or so, however, ignoring the older Alpha had become genuinely easy as his attention was held by something else.

"Yurio."

Usually that warning tone in Victor's voice would cause the blond to at least look around at him.

Not this time.

Not when Victor was clearly a shit-Alpha and Yuri had to monitor the situation brewing between Yuuri and the three other skaters that had him surrounded all on his own. It was fine though—he was fucking used to doing _everything_ himself; whatever! It would be nice if Victor would at least act like he cared that his Omega was getting propositioned right in front of him, though!

"Go tell Chris to rub it out in the locker room and leave the rest of us in peace!" Yuri demanded, seething at Victor's stupid smiling face. "I'll be sick all over the ice at this rate!"

"Oh?" Victor tapped his chin with an airheaded expression, squinting conspicuously over at the group of skaters a few yards away. Yuri fought the urge to yank him back around lest their spying be detected. "Well I can't say such a thing in front of Yuuri. His sensibilities are easily embarrassed."

"Fuck his sensibilities!" Yuri insisted. "I can't stand the stink of hormones wafting over from there any longer."

The group was huddled in a cluster together and Yuuri seemed to be regaling them with a story of some weight because everyone was leaning in to hear more.

The offenders were as follows:

Chris was perhaps the easiest to pick out due to the dumb look on his face all the time. He seemed to have bounced back from his hangover remarkably well. The Swiss skater had been strutting all over the place when Victor and the two Yu(u)ris showed up, clearly enjoying the home turf advantage. Once he was in hearing range, Yuri wouldn't be passing up the chance to call him a pervert, but really the sting of that insult had dulled years ago. Now the older man just made annoying tiger noises at him from a distance when they passed each other.

Then there was a dark-haired idiot with a goofy smile that always had to hang around Katsudon for whatever reason. Phichit; a Beta. He thought they had trained together before? Well they didn't train together _now_ , so what the hell!?

But the absolute worst had to be that useless, wide-eyed newbie that had just done his senior debut last year.

 _I don't even care enough to remember his name,_ Yuri jeered. The boy was blond ( _dirt-blond,_ Yuri thought) with what looked like a rust stain streaking the front of his short hair. Speaking of short, he was. Wasn't he nineteen or something? _What kind of Alpha_ —and wasn't _that_ a goddamn laugh!— _only barely breaks five feet?_ And even speaking of _that_ , Yuri had found out that this guy had been voted one of the top three Most Adorable Men's Skaters in Asia! Any self-respecting Alpha would be humiliated by that!

The worst of it all, though, had been one of the first things Yuri had discovered about the skater when he'd googled his name straight from the program listing the second after the blond latch on to Yuuri: the little bastard had skated with Yuuri before; he was even Japanese! Were they friends now or something?

Someone poked him on the nose. "Hey, sit down and I'll lace your skates. And are you sure you should be frowning like that?"

Yuri slapped Victor's hand away; in it were two plastic passes. "Worry about yourself! Why are you offering that all of a sudden!?"

Something hopeful jumped in his heart that felt a lot like when it had been only Yuuri and himself in the Omega's nest and Katsudon had placed a familial marker on the crown of his head that made Yuri think those pathetic words _stay close to me_.

To compensate for feeling that weak emotion, Yuri scowled even more viciously than normal. Trying to infer the reason from Victor's expression was no help; the man appeared uncharacteristically blank-faced—as though unsure himself.

"I just feel that I'd like to do that." Victor then visibly shook his head, clearing his face of serious emotions and smiling that idiot smile again. "I'll place good luck kisses on your blades!"

"DON'T DO THAT!" Even despite his shouting, the young Alpha did as he was told, throwing himself down on the bench next to them and crossing his arms over his chest. He had dropped off his skates for sharpening just after his flight landed yesterday and so would need to test the feel of them out on the ice to ensure nothing was amiss for the competition—assuming he wasn't banned.

Kneeling next to him, Victor grinned like an idiot while digging around the young Alpha's gym bag. "Your wrinkles look like they're worrying enough for everyone."

"You would know wrinkles, old man!" Yuri sat silently for a moment, watching as Victor worked. His face burned when he realized the skates Victor pulled out were still sporting the blade covers the older Russian had provided for him. "A—Also, what do you know about that fool dancing around Katsudon?"

"Eh?" Victor stopped loosening Yuri's skates for a moment to squint openly at his Omega from the ground. Yuri couldn't help but pull his hoodie down and slouch as though that would disguise him.

"And stop being so obvious about it!"

"Isn't that Minami Kenjirou?" Victor ignored him, tapping Yuri's right foot. The blond obediently pushed into the boot until his heel fit snuggly at the back. Victor gently teased the laces taut. "If so, he's a big fan of Yuuri. They competed together in a couple of national competitions in Japan."

"He's an Alpha," Yuri told him as though Victor hadn't known.

"Oh? Are you interested in—"

"Tch, not that! I meant to tell you that incase you feel like being responsible for Katsudon!"

"You seem concerned," Victor observed lightly, picking up the left skate. An awkward silence settled in, the cause unspoken. Yuri and Victor had said even less about the nesting than he and Katsudon had. Yuri honestly had no idea what to say, and was even a bit worried about what Victor would say to him if the subject was directly brought up. Probably Victor hadn't appreciated Katsudon adopting Yuri without warning; they would have their own pup one day and Yuuri's ties to Yuri would be competing with Victor's blood heir. Besides, it wasn't like Yuri was even that nice to Victor, despite occasionally making a conscious effort.

"Is that fine?"

Yuri frowned, wriggling his toes in both boots.

"It's too tight on the right," he admitted.

"Hm." Victor's fingers worked quickly, gracefully untying the knot, adjusting the weave of the lacing around the ankles. With concentration, the silver-haired Alpha redid the knot with almost tender care before beaming up at Yuri. "Better?"

"Y—Yes!" Yuri all but shouted, dropping his chin to his chest so his hair might better shield his face.

He visibly jumped when he felt a finger poke him exactly where his familial mark was. For one wild moment, Yuri was convinced that his longtime role model was about to confirm the familial bond by placing his own scent on Yuri's head.

The moment passed when Victor suddenly removed his hand.

"Ah—excuse me," said the silver-haired man restlessly, standing abruptly.

Yuri stood too. "What? Where are you going?" he called at Victor's retreating form. His long legs spirited him away into the crowd soon enough and Yuri was left staring hard after him.

Well what in the hell had that been about?

 _Humph. At least Victor's not frog-marching me everywhere…_

But really, what the _hell_ was that about!?

The feeling of being off-balance, having been steadily building over the past few days since the nesting, had now achieved an all-time high.

Yuri slapped on his skate guards.

Thankfully he knew of just the right outlet.

"And who the fuck are you supposed to be?" Yuri greeted this " _Minami Kenjirou_ ," delighted to find that he was able to use the three inches of height he had on him to look down his nose at the other Alpha.

"Ah—hah?"

 _Weak ass_. Triumph made Yuri puff his chest arrogantly as the newcomer Alpha struggled to mentally translate his rude question. He could definitely take this poser in a fight.

"Yurio."

The fun was immediately sucked out of this activity when Katsudon gave that half-warning. Yuri met his dam's eye only briefly, but found he had to look away from the disapproving frown directed his way.

"Tch."

"Hi, my name is Minami Kenjirou," the boy he'd yelled at stated in stilted English, pausing oddly. "It's very nice to meet you!"

He looked quickly up at Yuuri, who smiled sweetly in approval. Yuuri said something soothing that Yuri didn't understand in Japanese, causing Minami's face to light up as though Katsudon had handed him tomorrow's gold medal.

 _At least his English is so shitty that won't be able to hold a conversation with Victor in a million years._

Bolstered by the thought, Yuri scowled at him so frighteningly that Minami squeaked, jumping away. "All I know is you're the idiot that's going to lose to me tomorrow! What kind of Alpha are you, anyway? You look pathetic!"

" _Yurio_!"

Without thinking, Yuri instantly ducked his head at the reprimand, holding back a whine with huge difficulty. There was a strong tug at his heart where his and Yuuri's were connected and crap—wasn't this the most embarrassing thing ever?

"Looks like you have troubles to sort out," he heard Chris say with a laugh, sending off a text message with a soft chime. Not a second later, a cheerful set of tones chirped from Phichit's pocket. "All of you, come to this address tonight—it's my house, haha! I'll show you how the Swiss do things!"

"I might need some time. Please take Minami, Phichit—"

The Japanese blond protested nervously. "I—I am not very well at English, Yuuri-senpai! Please take care of me!"

Despite still being made to stare down at the ground, Yuri badly wanted to yell at him. Fortunately, Phichit stepped in.

"Not to worry; it's okay!" Phichit said a few words in Japanese, which Minami hesitantly agreed to. The Thai skater clapped his hands cheerfully. "It's settled! Yuuri's taught me enough; we'll have fun!"

"Try not to punish your son too hard," Chris instructed jovially, herding Phichit and Minami away. "He still has to skate tomorrow! I'm confident about it!"

"Bye, Yuuri!"

"G-goodbye, Yuuri-kun!"

When the others were gone, Yuri expected to be allowed to look up again. He sulked when his dam didn't release him right away.

"Who are you texting?" Yuri groused, recognizing the tapping sound.

"My Alpha and your sire."

Yuri didn't say anything to that for a second. Then:

"…He's not."

"What?" Yuuri asked distractedly, still texting.

"My sire. He's not." Yuri bit his lip, forcing himself to say the next words, which felt incredibly embarrassing and awkward on his tongue. "He… doesn't want to be…"

Abruptly the hold fell away, but Yuri still didn't move.

"Oh Yurio… of course he does." But even Yuuri's soft voice couldn't soothe him.

"I don't even care!" The young Alpha's head tilted up to glare at a point just over Yuuri's shoulder so he wouldn't have to see the pity on the Japanese Omega's face. "He's an idiot anyway! But I'm not. That's why I'm telling you, you've got to stop doing things so openly!"

He was an Alpha—albeit a young one—and could boss Yuuri around whenever he wanted, dammit! Showing off his scent gland when Alphas were around was just causing him trouble and even if Victor was too stupid to notice, Yuri wasn't.

Yuuri blinked at him with huge honey-bright Omega eyes. "Excuse me?"

He didn't seem to care about Yuri getting in his face and his head stayed completely upright. Yuri also had a feeling that the Omega would have addressed him first with full eye contact and everything if the blond hadn't ambushed him.

Yuri waited for the realization to bother his inner Alpha, but found it to be thoroughly disinterested in the conversation occurring, though clearly pleased to be in Yuuri's presence.

"Stop with moving your neck like that! It's a problem!"

Now.

Things had not changed very much since Yuuri had put his scent on Yuri's crown and called him his pup. Katsudon would occasionally catch himself sniffing the marker on Yuri's head, causing Yuri to go beat-red every time this occurred. Last night Yuri had woken in his hotel room at around midnight and found himself sniffing the air pathetically for the nesting scent on the green scarf that made him feel so safe (mortified, he took twice the recommended dose of sleeping pills in an attempt to wipe the memory from his mind). Their actual behavior towards each other, however, had not noticeably altered.

The look on Katsudon's face right now, however, was the calm before the shit storm.

"…It would be best if you dug down _deeply_ and found a more respectful tone to address your dam with."

Without delay, the young Alpha was overcome with a very unfamiliar form of panic. Logically, he knew he'd been living his life relatively well before Katsudon arrived in it, aside from being completely starved for affection and borderline psychopathic (an accusation from Chris). Maybe he'd even be okay if Yuuri left him on his own now. These thoughts, however, did not carry over to the basic area of his brain, still freshly contented with a stable familial bond, which currently was going crazy.

 _Abandoned pups do not do well_ , it warned Yuri in frenzy. _Abandoned pups have no nest, no dam, so sire—_

"I thought we'd have a problem today."

Yuri just scowled at the sound of Victor's concerned voice, tossing his head restlessly. He looked up only when a firm " _Yurio_." caught his attention.

In front of him, Victor's lake-blue eyes were trained on him. Unlike Yuuri, who often looked at him with what Yuri thought might even be _pride_ , Victor's features were a study in displeasure.

"Darling, what is the problem?"

"Alpha," Yuuri murmured from a few feet away. His neck was proudly exposed and his eyes were averted submissively as the silver-haired man addressed him. Victor pushed his chin up with a single finger; only then did Yuuri meet his dominant's gaze.

Yuri just couldn't stop himself.

"Victor, make him stop submitting to random Alphas!" he blurted out.

The effect was instantaneous.

Katsudon—the international icon of Omega class and etiquette—went absolutely sheet-white. The only things colorful about his body were his large eyes, which were wide and shocked, and his pink lips, which parted in astonishment. His chin jerked out of Victor's grasp as the silver-haired man's attention snapped to Yuri.

"That is a serious accusation, Yuri!" Victor bit out. Seething Alpha pheromones leaked from him into the air. "And one you should be ashamed of making!"

"Victor, I've never—I _swear_ —!"

Victor turned to his shaking, horrified Omega; their conversation at the hotel made Victor want to do something to prove himself, but this was not about Victor's feelings right now. Victor was quick to reassure him. "Oh I know, Yuuri. I would never doubt you."

Only that exchanged clued Yuri into what his accusation might have sounded like.

He gaped, stunned himself. "I—I never meant it like _that_!"

"Then you should think before you say anything!" Victor scolded him. His bubbly personality had been overshadowed cleanly by his Alpha mind. The blond couldn't remember him sounding so serious before. "Show your dam respect!"

"I _do_ respect my dam!"

"Then you're clearly careless! I only just finished talking to you about etiquette earlier! Were you listening or not really?"

Without a retort on his tongue, Yuri could only flush. He felt that he couldn't disobey when Victor told him not to say anything further and began speaking directly to Yuuri, who still looked shaken.

"He's saying things he doesn't understand, darling. I'll do my duty to him; I promise."

"I know." Yuuri paused. "I—I swear I've always been pure to you, Victor."

"It never occurred to me to doubt you," said Victor honestly. He would have gone on but, in that moment, a small troupe of Betas came marching up to him, stopping the appropriate distance. Around each of their necks hung a press pass; in their hands, autograph books. One of them was clutching a camera.

Victor hailed them with his usual stellar grin and wink, a combination more famous than any jump, stepping forward as a distraction to give the severely wrong-footed Yuuri the chance to compose himself. Yuuri's Omega pride would be devastated if anyone took a photo of him looking so ruffled. "It's a great day to skate! Don't you think so?"

A hesitant hand on his made Yuuri look around in surprise.

Yuri looked more upset than Yuuri thought he'd ever seen him look, though not in an angry way; it was fright and discomfort. He looked… lost.

"Katsudon…"

If they were going to have sincere conversations, they really should have move farther away from the registration line. JJ, who had shown up just then, spotted them with keen eyes on his way to the queue, rerouting excitedly and calling out as he approached.

"The Flower of Japan!" Jean-Jacques cheered, tossing his sunglasses carelessly to the side. Someone swore in the background as they knocked into their nose. The Canadian skater hardly seemed to care and continued to strut forward; Yuri was surprised to see him stop at the exact distance Yuuri preferred to interact with Alphas. The consideration was almost unnerving.

Yuri scowled, withdrawing his hand swiftly while Katsudon arched his slender neck, submitting at the Alpha's address. "Um, how nice to see you again, JJ."

Victor, who had caught Yuri's distasteful expression from the corner of his eye, gave him a warning look and the blond was forced to turn away. Satisfied, Victor turned back to flash a winsome smile at his growing gaggle of fans and continued speaking with them.

"I know!" JJ beamed, rocking back and forth on his heels with a bright smile. He paused to take a deep breath through his nose and nearly swooned, causing Yuri some alarm. "I have waited for this moment for months!" the man announced grandly, extending his arms out to his sides.

"Are you having an episode or something?" Yuri demanded, irritated both at being ignored as well as having no idea what this idiot was talking about. Katsudon seemed to have some clue, because when JJ first started talking, Yuuri's demurely lowered face adopted a sort of patient yet exasperated expression.

"Ah, and the Russian tiger! Hi, small-Yuri!" JJ grinned, as though only just noticing him. "Wow, you haven't gotten any taller at all!"

"AND YOU HAVEN'T GOTTEN ANY SMARTER!"

"That's too much yelling," Yuuri chided them both softly. Seemingly satisfied that JJ had noticed his obedience, Yuuri finally made skeptical eye contact with the Canadian. "I feel as though I know what you will—"

"Yuuri, please reconsider your answer!" JJ immediately interrupted, bending his thumb and forefinger on both hands into twin "J's" and crossing his arms to form his signature pose. "Despite us being competitors, I simply _must_ have your wondrous scent for my new fragrance line! It's totally JJ style!"

"That's a weird request!" Yuri shouted, ignoring the admonishing look Yuuri shot him. "Why are you asking Katsudon about that!?"

JJ tut-tutted condescendingly at the young Alpha, looking pointedly down his nose at the blonde's shorter stature. "You may know when you're older, small-Yuri. Omega pheromones are one of the most _invigorating_ scents on Earth."

"J— _JJ_!" Yuuri yelped, turning slightly away in embarrassment.

"Sorry!" said JJ easily, looking just the opposite.

"Now this looks friendly!"

Victor had finished up signing the last autograph and turned his attention fully back to the matter at hand. Behind him, the gaggle of press fans wandered away, though not without glancing back longingly; clearly they had wanted to speak with Yuuri as well, but had been gracefully sent away by his Alpha. Yuri couldn't recall the last time he was so relieved to see Victor's clueless face. His own cheeks were coloring as much as Katsudon's but he really didn't feel comfortable walking away and leaving the Omega on his own with the most annoying Alpha in the world either. So, useless as Victor was, it was still better than nothing.

"JJ is being a creep!" Yuri reported immediately, pointing out the accused with childish ire.

"How rude!"

"You're getting pretty close to my Omega, JJ."

"Ehh?" JJ blinked. He looked down—then leapt away, careful to stay out of Victor's reach. "Ah! Sorry Victor. I was trying to convince your cute little Omega to give his scent to my brand's new fragrance line! And you know how fun the Russian tiger is to tease! He's so protective of Yuuri that it's easy. Also, he was holding his hand. I'd watch out! You might have a rival!"

Yuri couldn't help but gag at the thought. Next to him, Yuuri looked completely unconcerned, watching his Alpha control the situation contentedly.

Ignoring the speculation, Victor smiled that airheaded smile. "You have a brand? I never knew that!"

JJ gaped at him, and Yuri took pleasure in seeing his ego visibly deflate. "N—NEVER KNEW? I'VE HAD IT FOR THREE YEARS! HOW DID YOU NOT NOTICE!?"

"Three years?" Victor cheered, clapping his hands twice. "Wow! You should do skating accessories!"

"THAT'S LITERALLY WHAT THE ENTIRE BRAND IS!"

They all watched JJ's face turn gradually redder as he breathed great indignant lungfuls of air. When Victor just kept smiling stupidly at him, the Canadian skater seemed to crumple in shame, muttering something about needing to talk to his marketing rep before slouching off towards the in-house café. Yuri watched him go with glee. It was a rare and beautiful thing to see "king" JJ taken down a peg or two.

"You knew he had a brand, Victor. You told me it was called 'JJ Style' last year."

Dumbfounded, Yuri tore his eyes away from the retreating figure to gape at Victor, stunned that the idiot could have performed so flawless an act. The Russian skater had his hands wrapped around Yuuri's hips from behind, pulling the amused Omega close while sticking his nose against Yuuri's left scent gland.

Katsudon held obediently still as his Alpha scented him, humor turning to bliss as his slim body quivered under Victor's teeth scrapping lightly over his neck. The last mating mark he'd left was truly faded; it should have been replaced during Yuuri's heat a few days ago, but that hadn't exactly gone as planned.

"Your scent is to intoxicate me alone," Victor rumbled, settling on nipping his mate's ear to convey a preview of what was later to come.

"WHAT ARE YOU TWO DOING!?" Yuri screeched, clawing at his hair the way he wanted to claw at his eyes. "We're in public! What is wrong with you!? So _awkward_!"

"We're embarrassing him," Victor smirked as he clung to his sweet mate. "How cute of you, Yurio!"

"I already told you that's a stupid name!"

Victor laughed. "Yeah, okay!"

A long stream of French echoed over the loudspeakers followed by the only words Victor understood. "…Yuri Plisetsky." Then, after a pause, the voice repeated; this time in English. "Attention. Please come to the registration desk, Yuri Plisetsky."

Nervousness fluttered in his chest. Automatically, Yuri looked to his dam and sire for reassurance.

Yuuri stepped out of his mate's arms, a pensive frown turning his pink lips. Victor nodded firmly at the younger Alpha, winking. "You won't be alone. We'll talk to these people together. It's going to be alright, Yuri."

 _Weird. I… kind of believe him._


	5. Territorial

**Unintentionally Yours**

articas_ursula (AO3)

artica's-ursula (FFN)

* * *

Chapter 5: Territorial

* * *

 _Sochi Grand Prix banquet, several years ago_

"'It's worth nothing,'" Chris imitated him, catching up to Victor for the specific purpose of staring incredulously at his friend from the relative safety of the banquet hall. He mimed the same flashy hair toss Victor had left the impromptu sports news interview with just seconds ago outside the banquet hall doors. "'This event was a waste of my time.' Really, Victor? That's an excessive statement."

"I have my own problems right now and don't have time for the Grand Prix committee's," Victor replied vaguely. The profile of his brow was marred by a slight frown as he swirled his newly acquired champagne by tilting it this way and that. "I thought you knew that."

"You know what—" Chris paused, accepting a flute of his own from a passing server. He snapped his fingers pointedly when Victor only continued to stare vacantly at the softly bubbling alcohol. "Hey _Victor_ , do you know what?"

The Russian skater blinked, then smiled. "Oh sorry, I'm feeling a bit absent. What is it?"

"You're always absent these days," Chris returned only half in jest. "But I wanted to know if you've seen Yuuri Katsuki over there." He jerked his head towards the section of the room dedicated to a dance floor; it seemed too crowded to pick out anyone in particular. "I can't remember the Russian thing to do, but I feel distracted if I start doing things before paying my respects. Have you greeted him yet?"

"No, not yet," Victor said, falling into step as Chris walked in the correct direction. Propriety stated that competitors were to offer greetings to each other at this sort of after-event gathering. Well, Victor would have plenty to say to Cao Bin—if the skater bothered showing his face; Victor certainly hadn't made it easy for him with what he'd said to the news crew outside. "Yakov already left, so I'm somewhat unsupervised! ' _I'm going to sleep. Try not to be indecent_.'" Victor's impersonation of his coach was uncanny, complete with an " _I never want to see you again"_ expression that Yakov wore rather well and with some frequently.

"Ha-ha! It's funny because you're indecent always."

Victor pouted.

The Omega, Yuuri Katsuki, was not difficult to find. He was in the company of JJ, which didn't surprise Victor in the least; the Canadian Alpha had always preferred the company of Omegas to any other Dynamic whenever it was available for as long as Victor had known him.

It was obvious that Katsuki was a few drinks in by this point. There was a lovely flush to his cheeks and several empty glasses of champagne to his name. Even as they approached, Victor saw JJ hail a passing waiter and acquire a new drink for his companion. He seemed to have taken on the role of enabler, though to his credit the Canadian had arranged himself a respectful distance away so as not to irritate the Omega's senses.

Even so, as the two Alpha advanced at a respectable pace into what could be considered speaking distance, the Omega's large doll-like eyes averted to the floor as the smooth, unmarked length of his neck— _the left side_ , Victor's Alpha mind noted interestedly—was exposed in a gesture of unwavering submission.

Victor felt a slight flush touch his face.

Even by Omega standards, Yuuri Katsuki was very pretty.

"Ha-ha! Hey JJ, why does that look like they put up a stripper pole?"

Victor grinned at the distraction, having not expected Chris to say something so blunt. He wasn't wrong, however—someone had thought it a fine plan to erect some sort of dancing post on one of the daises.

JJ craned his head around to look too, his navy eyes squinting from under a dark fringe. "Maybe they're hoping to make you comfortable, Chris. Isn't that blond junior skater going around saying you live in a brothel?"

Far from being offended, Chris swooned dramatically; his hazel eyes lit with a troublemaking sort of spirit. "My Russian tiger is here already? That makes me so happy!" Mentioning Yuri seemed to bring him back around to the reason they'd walked over there, and Chris brightened, pushing right up to an alarming two feet of distance. The breech of distance etiquette visibly startled Katsuki, who jerked his head upright early to track Chris's movements.

"Ah, sorry." Chris caught himself, pausing his speech to take one large step back to bring the distance between himself and Katsuki to a respectable five feet. "I'm a little forgetful and sometimes refer back to European etiquette without meaning it."

"I appreciate that effort." Katsuki smiled hesitantly, relaxing his stance somewhat. "I—I forget on occasion also when I travel."

"And this has been an interesting place to travel to," JJ cut in, unasked. He smirked at Victor. "That was too bad about the microphone breaking during the opening ceremony. Was that really embarrassing for Russia?"

Victor only looked surprised at the obnoxious remark for a moment, but made a nice recovery. "Oh, a little. It reminds me—I heard the outdoor Skate Canada Showcase this year had to be canceled because a large moose sat down on the ice and wouldn't leave," said Victor, smiling serenely. "Someone told me that it's good luck in Canada, but I guess that wasn't enough luck for you, since you came in third today."

JJ opened his mouth to retort, understandably offended, but their small group collectively paused as Katsuki abruptly began unknotting his tie and opening the top button of his dress shirt. The action was done with a sort of absentmindedness that didn't match the almost scandalous puff of Omega pheromones that slipped from Katsuki's lovely neck as the clothing came away.

The small amount of intoxicating aroma vanished immediately, and if Katsuki had noticed his brief lapse of control over his scent glands, he didn't show it.

"It's warm in here," Katsuki defended his casual state of dress, misinterpreting the attentive gaze of the three. Tie hanging loosely around his shoulders, Katsuki picked up his champagne to drain the remaining drops.

Victor had never met Katsuki before, but was somewhat aware of what must have been done to allow the Omega the presence of mind to skate based on social media speculation that had already sprung up after his uncharacteristically poor performance.

"Should you be drinking a lot of alcohol right now?"

All eyes swiveled to stare at Victor next.

"Why's that? Because proper Omegas shouldn't drink publically or something?" JJ asked. "Acting properly hasn't been helpful so far. Shouldn't Omegas just do what they want, then?"

"Stop trying to fight me." There was a clear note of warning accented by the ostentatious scent of a posturing Alpha. Victor's instincts bristled as JJ jutted his chin subtly to respond to the challenge, rolling his shoulders and emitting an answering aggressive scent.

In the midst of the rising tension, Victor heard someone clear their throat.

"Oh, we're drinking together!" Chris cheered with more enthusiasm than was really warranted. "I'll get the attention of a server, hold on!"

Victor eyed the Canadian for a moment more before forcing himself to dismiss the man. He, Victor, was the stronger Alpha, as evidenced by the gold medal around his neck earlier today and the way the Omega subconsciously always kept Victor on his left side.

"No, you should leave the whole bottle here!"

Chris's words to the waiter as he liberated the expensive champagne bottle from the young Beta's distressed grip sealed their fate.

It didn't take long for Chris to become nearly as blitzed as Katsuki, but it _did_ take longer than that for Victor to realize that he was not prepared for how things were playing out.

"I will get another bottle," Chris announced, standing with exaggerated effort. He was grinning a pleased-to-be-there grin; a classically inebriated Chris.

Katsuki, on the other hand…

"Yuuri, maybe you should keep that on," said JJ diplomatically as the Japanese Omega shrugged out of his formal sports coat. A further three buttons had come undone on his dress shirt.

It had been impressive that Yuuri Katsuki had been able to skate at all while dosed up on what many ice skating fan forums had concluded was emergency scent blinders. The sense-altering medication, if that indeed was what he had taken, was a recent revolution in pharmacology, temporarily robbing the user of their sense of smell with a single injection. However, as an imperfect first-generation prototype and the only one of its kind, the cost was great—in more ways than one. The scent blinder's side effect—intense vertigo—had taken its payment from Katsuki's balance today, and thus, Victor's ability to see his true skill.

So while Victor knew that scent blinders reacted poorly with alcohol, he had not expected the outcome to be this; "this" being the progressive state of undress Katsuki was starting to descend into.

His dilated eyes were a thick nightshade in this lighting, nearly eclipsing what the Internet had assured Victor was usually a sweet shade of honeycomb. Katsuki was not acting sweetly now, though; he was acting like a pot of Omega instincts simmering over a fire.

Victor couldn't stop engaging him.

For the past half-hour, their exchanges had been deliciously subtle. As their group grew to five, then six, then ten, the lessening scrutiny on his affairs amid his mildly to moderately sloshed companions made Victor increasingly fascinated by Katsuki. He had met maybe half a dozen male Omegas in his life; each had been unfailingly pleasant to look at, but lacked the classic propriety that Victor's Alpha mind preferred from a submissive.

And now Katsuki was looking at him in that appraising way that Victor couldn't put into words, but made him straighten up and posture.

The Omega was testing Victor's interest. His neck was tilted to show off his left scent gland again and his attention was as much on Victor's movements as it was on flexing his nails and displaying his slender neck in that understated submissive way.

Well, Victor was _definitely_ interested. To show this, he started small:

"Sit closer to me."

Not a beat was missed as the Omega gracefully stood and scooted his seat just half a foot from Victor's; an illicit distance between two unmated Dynamics.

Victor thought carefully before each order—small, respectable ones—and watched with a hunter's attention as Yuuri obeyed. It was a heated, intimate feeling to nearly _taste_ the Omega's responsiveness in the air. Certainly Yuuri was not obligated to comply in the way breeding pairs were; Yuuri _enjoyed_ deferring to him.

This was the most primitive condition of nature: an Alpha's dominance to an Omega's submission.

Victor felt overwhelmingly aware of why people were so reverent of Omegas in the first place. The powerful satisfaction of seeing his Dynamic truly exercised was heartachingly pleasing.

And slowly, steadily, Katsuki was losing control of his scent glands.

"I'm a great dancer! There's no way I'm losing!"

The delicious scent floating like a spell from Katsuki's scent glands had turned ten people into easily twenty, hovering around what had been Victor, Chris, JJ, and Katsuki and was now also Yuri, Mickey, and quite a few others that Victor didn't know or care about.

"You'll lose," Katsuki assured Yuri. He sat like a queen next to Victor as his king, surveying the small blond with a confidence that he'd never displayed yet tonight.

Victor found it intensely attractive.

Unexpectedly, Chris jumped from his seat, having been eavesdropping. "I also want to dance!"

"No one wants to see your old man moves!"

The squabbling continued on from there, but Victor would hardly remember it the next day. What he would always remember for the rest of his life was what Katsuki did next.

Getting smoothly to his feet with impossible grace considering his state of inebriation, the dark-haired Omega pulled his lashes low over his heated eyes. "I'll dance for you. Don't take your eyes off me."

He set the Alpha's heart on fire.

"Okay," Victor all but choked out, heat creeping up his neck.

The dance-off that followed was the stuff of legends. Did Yuri or Katsuki win that? Well, certainly no one had lost—least of all Victor, who found himself some time later in the night with the Omega pressed up inappropriately against his chest. The color in Victor's cheeks had exploded into bright red as Katsuki moved like liquid against him, drowning Victor in the unforgettable scent of an Omega enticing a partner.

 _Is this what it feels like right before you faint?_

"You'll be my coach, right Victor?" Katsuki sighed, breathing in the Alpha's scent. Victor instinctively adjusted the potency with the clinical efficiency of a pharmacist, an unbelievable feeling of desperation overcoming him as he did everything in his power to attract this perfect Omega as a mate.

 _Just stay close to me, okay?_

"Yes. Yes, Yuuri; _yes_."

* * *

In Geneva, the Beta blinked at them slowly from the reception desk, as though not truly understanding the situation he had inadvertently found himself in. "Victor Nikiforov… Yuuri Katsuki. _Oh_! Oh, please—I must announce you—"

"Thank you, but I'm not really in the mood for that," said Victor, crossing his arms. His aqua eyes looked wonderful against the scowl attached to his lips. "I don't want to be rude, but I'm not happy that my pup is being stressed out like this right before his event."

"O—One moment, please. I will—I must call."

The man, looking severely shaken, quickly brought a landline phone to his ear. Yuri chewed his lip restlessly, watching Victor watch the secretary. The Alpha was all business, tracking each movement around him was a calm control that Yuri hoped he would be able to imitate one day. The blond was under no illusions that the Beta would be treating him with the same deference if he had come here alone.

 _He'd probably put my badge in the shredder and that would be it._

Despite knowing Victor for so long, Yuri thought he was only now beginning to understand how a real Alpha conducted oneself.

The Beta concluded the call with an expression that articulated more disquiet than even before. Either way, he seemed helpless to stop the sentence from leaving his throat: "Please, if you follow me."

They entered the door just behind the desk, revealing a hallway of some length. Yuri only became aware that he was expecting something in particular when it failed to come to pass: there was no interrogation squad to meet them and stuff them through to a room filled with dim light and a loud Swiss yodeling track playing on repeat. Instead, they were invited into a standard office boardroom with what could only be the members of the event's committee seated around a long central table.

"Excuse me," the man that they'd followed in said to the room at large. "This is… ah, the person you want. And his sire and dam."

There was an appreciable delay before the accumulation of Alphas and Betas stood up upon registering the Omega's entrance. Plenty of them followed the ice skating community well enough to know that being told that Yuri Plisetsky was the pup of Yuuri Katsuki and Victor Nikiforov was flooring news.

"Mister Nikiforov; Mister Katsuki. Thank you for coming," an affable-seeming middle-aged woman greeted them. Her unwavering stance identified her as an Alpha; taking the initiative to speak before anyone else marked her as the chairperson. "Please, sit down."

Yuuri did not expose his neck, but he waited until she stopped speaking to meet her eye. "Thank you."

Victor noticed Cao Bin right away. They locked eyes for a long moment before the younger Alpha begrudgingly turned away, glaring at his hands gripped together in his lap.

What surprised Victor more than seeing the little punk were the two women seated on either side of him: an Alpha and, amazingly enough, an Omega.

The statistics stating how ill advised the situation was were compelling.

Omegas absolutely did not get along. They were wary of each other at best and downright violent under the right conditions. Despite this not being a secret, it was clear that the chairperson was of the popular opinion that Omegas were hardly violent enough to cause damage if the lack of concern she showed was any indication.

Victor, whose neck still sported purple bruises from when Yuuri had strangled him just a week ago, was not so sure about that.

The simplest solution would be to send both Omegas from the room. Victor entertained the idea of asking Yuuri to step out only briefly before dismissing it. Under any other circumstance, he was sure Yuuri would do as he said—he was a very good Omega after all and rarely took issue with being handed small orders. However, with their pup now involved, Victor was not positive that his Omega wouldn't feel justified in rejecting the command. Being disobeyed in public by his submissive mate would not be something Victor could let go unanswered and being punished in front of anyone—much less Yuri—would mortify him.

It seemed the other Alpha had arrived at this conclusion as well because she chose not to acknowledge either Omega and turned to directly address the chairperson.

"I have been told something that I really do not like. Something about a fight."

Her English was crisp and clear, with all her mannerisms suggesting that she'd been taught by someone from Australia or New Zealand. Only her slight skewed intonations for certain hard vowels gave her away as a second language speaker.

The chairperson seemed to weigh her options regarding the Omegas' presence—a bit more casually than was wise—before deciding to allow the situation to stand also.

"Fighting is not tolerated in this place. Because these two were doing that, this meeting will decide if it's necessary to ban them from competing in the Swiss Invitational tomorrow."

Now.

While all this was occurring, a separate sort of standoff was happening without much mind being paid to it.

It felt like it had been a long time since Yuuri had been in such close proximity to another Omega. Like most Omegas, he preferred to avoid the company of his own kind—and yet, here he was, six inadequate feet away; with his pup in the room, no less!

Oh no, Yuuri did _not_ like this.

"I didn't attack anyone!" Cao Bin was insisting.

Alphas and Betas claimed a smaller distance of territory around themselves from those of their same Dynamic for the reason that there were so many of them. Omegas, being so few, demanded a greater distance from each other, which was rarely an issue because Omegas didn't care to interact with each other much anyway.

Trying to guess the Dynamic his counterpart subscribed to was difficult. She was of an indeterminant nationality and, because of the large number of Alphas in the room, probably wouldn't be saying much. Her mannerisms were ambiguous; it was impossible to say if she even understood what was being said in English.

Yuuri noted her similarities to Cao Bin and could deduce that the two women in front of him had naturally bred him; a mateship that long would be mature enough for the Omega of the pair to incorporate her dominant's cultural Dynamic rules into her own behaviors. Her dominant mate was Chinese, and so East Asian Dynamics would probably govern the female Omega as much as they did Yuuri.

"We have interviewed many people and it seems that Yuri Plisetsky was the one to approach Cao Bin with aggressive intentions."

Yuuri flashed his teeth at her.

Predictably, his counterpart did not appreciate that.

Omegas had an uncanny aptitude for detecting threats without necessarily seeing them, and so her attention, which had been vaguely upon him in her periphery, snapped fully to him at once.

Her teeth, once bared at him, were adequate; they were clean and straight, but Yuuri's were sharper.

She flexed her fingernails—subtly to an Alpha or Beta, but positively ostentatiously to an Omega. They were of medium length and polished, smooth and not brittle. Yuuri fanned his own on his knee, showing off their short, strong edges. He saw her study them with intense concentration, searching neurotically for flaws.

So far, neither of them had demonstrated obvious superiority.

"You should kick him out! He doesn't deserve to be here anyway!"

Their eyes were both viable enough—Yuuri's a lovely light coca color and hers a dark coal.

Their hair was both shiny and healthy—Yuuri's a rattlesnake-black and hers a hellsfire-red.

The tension between them was starting to reach a terminal level.

"Look," Victor said, oblivious as everyone else to the silent war. His smile was ever-present, but hardly friendly. "There are many Alphas in this room. I'm sure we've all been in fights that were ill advised. And they're both alright, aren't they?"

Finally, she tilted her chin slightly to flaunt her mating mark over the scent gland on the right side of her neck. It was relatively fresh with purple bruising around the knitting outline of two neat rows of teeth marks, but not obscene in the way of an exposed mark with red crusts or actively bleeding skin. It was clear she had concluded a successful heat maybe two weeks ago. It was equally clear by the position of her mark that she preferred to breed with females, but Yuuri, painfully conscious of his dangerously fading mark and lack of Victor's claiming pheromones on his skin, was immediately offended.

Did she want his Alpha? Clearly she did; Victor was the best Alpha, after all. He was handsome, strong, and had proven himself capable of protecting Yuuri as he nested with their pup.

"He's a cheating bastard who went against Katsudon and should have retired in disgrace a long time ago!"

She bristled, leaving Yuuri alone and turning her threatening expression on Yuri for that statement.

The decision to attack was sudden; Yuuri's introspection turned to violence within the space of a few milliseconds. His body tensed; her would _rip her throat apart with his teeth if she even touched his—_

" _Yuuri_."

Yuuri stopped even breathing at his Alpha's sharp tone.

"I'm not wrong!" Yuri insisted from his chair, believing just as the rest of the room that the reprimand was intended for him. "Someone should confiscate his jump skates and replace them with _hockey_ ones so he can crash into walls with the rest of the toothless trash!"

Blinking, Yuuri released the air from his lungs in one long, quiet sigh.

No one in the room seemed to have noticed his slip but for her; she was still perched at the edge of her chair and tensed like an electrified spring. Composing himself, Yuuri held it together gracefully. Victor would not allow Yuri to be harmed, whatever the consequences.

Something about Yuri's words seemed to register with Cao Bin's sire, however, because she turned to him with a suspicious look.

"This is the Omega you wronged before?" the Alpha asked, her attention flickering to Yuuri briefly. Her tone was as wintery as her eyes while addressing her pup.

Cao, unprepared to answer such an incriminating question, only looked pale under his parents' stares.

There was an awkward silence.

"What was that?" The Alpha was not letting this go.

"...Yes, sire."

"So you deceived me then, right?"

The coal-colored eyes Cao shared with his dam were wide with horror. He opened his mouth once but thought better of it and closed it again.

"What was that?" she repeated sharply.

Cao looked automatically to his dam for assistance, but found that the female Omega was no more sympathetic. Her head was tilted to stare to the right out the window. Her cheeks were flushed with embarrassment from her spawn's behavior.

"Yes, sire," Cao finally admitted with difficulty, bowing his head in deference to her.

"…I think we can leave this here. For our part, I am withdrawing the complaint against this young man."

"He is allowed to skate?" Cao demanded of his sire indignantly, pulling out of the bow to express his disbelief. "That boy attacked me!"

She replied scathingly in Chinese and, though Yuuri did not understand the words, the hot flush that stole across Cao's cheeks was telling.

"Go shake hands."

Cao looked ill.

"Well if you don't like what happens after a fight, then stop picking fights! Go shake hands like proper Alphas, Cao."

Yuri wasn't pleased either. "I'm _not_ —"

"Shake hands, Yurio."

They did, but with barely any civility to it. The parting Victor did with Cao Bin's sire was much more friendly.

"I apologize for what was done to your Omega that year," said the Alpha firmly, gripping his hand with no more strength than was polite.

"He wasn't my Omega at the time," Victor conceded graciously.

"In any case."

* * *

By the time the three of them arrived at the address provided, it seemed things had already deteriorated.

Chris lived on the fifth floor of a neat stone apartment building atop a small Swiss café that was closed and two grocery stores that were not. The hallways leading up to it were narrow but painted a rich crème color with tasteful paintings of flowers and fruit accented by warm wall sconces.

They were informed right away as Chris opened the door and all but dragged them inside that there had been an accident and their delivery order would be delayed by nearly an hour more.

"But don't worry about that!" Chris went on to insist, producing a bottle of burgundy wine from nowhere in particular.

"You're going to get drunk before skating tomorrow?" Victor asked.

"There won't be any difference," Yuri muttered.

"I hope Yuuri will have a glass at least." Chris swooned. "Speaking of all this nonsense with Cao Bin, recall the banquet?"

"The…? Oh." Yuuri blushed. He looked moderately horrified. "I still don't remember that. It's better this way, I think."

"The—" Minami struggled to inquire further. "I'm sorry?"

Chris jumped at the chance to explain. "Yuuri got blitzed beyond all reason and released a metric ton of Omega pheromones, thanks to JJ's encouragement."

Yuuri grimaced at the description. "You should have invited him tonight, you know."

"Well, I don't like him."

"JJ is an asshole," Yuri informed the room at large.

"You think everyone's an asshole."

"Especially you, pervert!"

"You are all very hard on him," Yuuri replied carefully. He stood up, taking with him his empty water glass and reaching over for Yuri's as well. "Can I get anyone anything?"

"Ah, Yuuri is the better host." Chris closed his eyes, clutching his heart dramatically. "Hey, bring the crisps out, okay?"

Yuuri left the room; Victor caught up with him in the small kitchen shortly thereafter. Yuuri was calmly reaching up to take down a bag of chips from the cabinet, his back to the door.

"Hm, this is nice."

The hand holding the plastic bag paused. Yuuri looked up at him, head slightly tilted. "It's a lot of junk food before an event. But that isn't what you came to talk about, right?"

"Yuuri…"

"Are you going to punish me?" Yuuri asked without inflection.

This was a problem. Because Russia stretched across Asia and Europe, many of the Dynamic rules that Yuuri followed were those that Victor subscribed to as well; however, because Victor had been raised in the relatively Western city of St. Petersburg, there were still plenty of finer Dynamic points that the pair dissented on.

In contrast to Yuuri's dispassion, Victor looked uncomfortable; certainly a switch of roles. "Yuuri, you shouldn't say things like that outright." Habitually, Victor glanced over at the doorway, slightly comforted to find it empty. "That sort of question is easily misconstrued."

"But are you?" Yuuri pressed mildly, his gaze on a point just over Victor's shoulder. "I went against your intentions."

"Do you want me to?"

Yuuri shrugged, turning back to close the cabinet door and taking out a large serving bowl from the neighboring one. "Not really."

"Then why are you asking?"

"Because I went against you," Yuuri repeated, annoyed. He flexed his nails in a way that made Victor pretty sure that this was some sort of Omega pride thing.

" _Is_ this some sort of Omega pride thing?" Victor blurted out unwisely. After all, Victor had only met maybe a dozen Omegas in Yuuri's company and none since they'd sort of adopted Yurio. Each time they had behaved rather coldly to one another, locking eyes silently until one or the other had showed their teeth in some specific Omega way that had the other turning away in a huff.

"She threatened our pup," Yuuri replied evenly. The simmering displeasure he was using to wrestle open the chip bag was starting to make his wrist ache. "That was an offense. I would have hurt her if I could have."

"I don't know if you know this, but a lot of people have a problem with Yurio! If you keep this up, you'll be fighting someone all day long!"

Yuuri didn't seem to have words to counter that and so said nothing.

Victor was still thinking carefully about how to either press the issue or conclude the conversation for later when a new presence registered in the sensitive crosshairs of his awareness.

It didn't really surprise him to see Yuri hovering in the doorway of the cramped kitchen, head bowed. Victor knew this would happen sooner or later… but later would have been his preference. The teen's light hair concealed his face and both his small shoulders were thrust back with the perilous pride of a young Alpha trying hard to appear strong.

"Yurio," Victor heard Yuuri say in an almost casual tone. His mate's connection to their pup was even more profound than his own hunter-like senses and so Yuri must have truly just arrived if Yuuri thought there was still room to play this off. "You should eat something. Come here."

Yuri looked up. His expression was blank.

"I've caused you both problems."

Victor and Yuuri traded glances.

"I know I have. Don't bother lying about it."

Biting his lower lip, Yuuri upended the now-open bag of potato chips, pouring them into the large red bowl.

Victor leaned back against the countertop slowly. "You need to understand our concern for you. You allow your instincts to overpower your judgment and I don't think you know conduct rules like everyone is assuming you do. Don't they teach that in school anymore?"

"You of all people should realize how much school I've had to miss," Yuri protested. "I'm fifteen with a world title. While my rivals were splitting their focus by studying, I practiced. Excellence demands sacrifice. I thought you'd agree with that!"

"Not when it's causing you to do dangerous things," Victor countered. "Like barging into the space of a breeding pair about to couple. And then _posturing_? I could have killed you!"

"You keep saying 'breeding pair'! What the fuck does that even mean? But tell me without being gross!"

"There is nothing 'gross'," Victor clarified, frowning. "And despite what you seem to think, the whole thing isn't about—" He paused, searching for words that weren't crude before eventually settling on: "pleasure."

"I'm not having this conversation!" Yuri declared at a shout, red-faced and mortified to have found himself in the middle of receiving "the talk" from Victor. Yuuri looked no better off, but to his credit he didn't look away like Yuri, who made to leave the room.

"Turn back around, Yurio."

Yuri froze.

Slowly, reluctantly, the teen turned back to face Victor, arms crossed over his chest with a defensive scowl.

Yuuri watched them, wringing his hands.

"I won't pretend not to know why you don't understand much of Dynamic etiquette because I've met your two sires before." Yuri winced at the unexpected statement and Victor continued as matter-of-factly as possible to soften his words. "I shouldn't say it in front of you, but they're both pretty rotten. That doesn't change the fact that you need to take responsibility. I'm expecting something from you now."

Yuri stared at Victor as though no one had ever expected anything from him before.

"…Fine. Maybe I'll do some things differently."

Soothed, Yuuri didn't bother hiding his smile. "Really? Even just last year you wouldn't have admitted to being wrong."

Yuri scowled. " _Whatever_. I'm still doing things that aren't right, so I'm not really that different than then."

"No, I don't agree with that," Yuuri corrected him. "Yes, it's true that some people don't change.

"I'm just really happy that you did."


	6. Breeding Pair

**Unintentionally Yours**

 _articas_ursula (AO3)_

 _artica's-ursula (FFN)_

* * *

Chapter 6: Breeding Pair

* * *

"I think it's time for Yurio to go back to the hotel."

"I'm… _fine_."

Despite his claims to the contrary, Yuri was clearly lagging. His face twisted oddly as he refused to allow a yawn past his lips. He was curled up in the soft beige fabric of Chris's armchair, and, most notably, his insults had stopped flowing as his energy began to fade.

Victor set down the wine he'd been nursing for over half an hour on a coaster, glancing down at his mate. "It might be time to go then, Chris."

The Swiss skater pouted, side eying the wall clock. "It's only twenty-hundred…"

The light outside was just beginning to fade, but even so it was only the four of them left. Minami and Phichit had bowed out within fifteen minutes of each other about half an hour ago in order to rest early for the competition tomorrow. Yuuri thought that was a good idea for his pup, who clearly needed the sleep.

"I'll return to the hotel with him," Yuuri volunteered, standing from his place at Victor's feet. He used Victor's knee as leverage to push himself up and felt his Alpha steady him by the curves of his hip. "You should stay here, Victor. Chris lives so far away from us—I think he misses you."

"You miss me?" Victor teased, looking over at the blond.

Chris shrugged, resting his chin on the heel of his hand. "I miss watching you make a fool of yourself in front of Yuuri, yeah."

"That's not very friendly of you."

Kneeing next to the young skater's dozing form, Yuuri reached out to brush a few strands from Yuri's eyes before hesitating, uncertain how the gesture would be received. Withdrawing his hand, Yuuri cleared his throat quietly.

"Yurio? Yurio, wake up, okay? It's time to go."

The plush blanket Yuuri had tucked around the boy earlier slipped to the floor in a heap as he shifted. The blond grumbled and arched into the chair further, away from the cold. Yuuri sighed, ignoring the shutter sound of a photo being taking and placing a hand on the teen's shoulder.

"Yurio."

"Humph…"

"Let's go back to the hotel. You're going to really fall asleep here."

One eyelid lifted briefly to gather a little information about the situation; it didn't stay like that though, closing sleepily once again after only a second.

"I can carry him for you," Victor's voice offered.

Yuuri's instincts immediately recoiled at the idea before he'd even truly processed what had been said.

 _A proper Omega can control its pup._

The thought wasn't wrong, but the sudden tension in his teeth it brought about was accompanied by an unexpected nervousness; agitation.

Having not expected that, Yuuri continued from where he'd opened his mouth to answer.

"No, that's okay." To Yuri, he added more firmly: "Yurio, get up; we're going now."

The same grumbling from before echoed up from somewhere in the small lump of blond hair. At least Yuri was taking the order seriously, however, and rolled sloppily from the chair to his feet in one ungraceful movement. He staggered, allowing his dam to hold him upright as he collected his bearings.

"That's elegant. I look forward to seeing that move also on the ice tomorrow!"

"Shut up you goddamn pervert," Yuri was just awake enough to return, making a rude gesture at Chris.

"That's enough of that," the Omega chided, lassoing his charge with Yuri's discarded scarf to prevent him from lunging uncoordinatedly after their smirking host. Yuri flailed in protest as Yuuri looped the scarf neatly around his neck, carefully untucking and smoothing out the blond strands afterward. Soon enough, the snug knot securing it under Yuri's chin was the mirror image of Yuuri's own, which he hadn't bothered to take off since arriving at the apartment. The sleepy young Alpha let him do it, holding back another yawn as his dam worked and moving his head as required.

There was a second flash of a photo being taken.

"Ha-ha, I'll post that to Instagram and tag it 'sleepy pup-py'!"

"Go to hell, fool!"

"Yurio," Yuuri sighed, exasperated as he let his hands return to his sides. He didn't bother with a further reprimand, picking up both his and Yuri's packs.

Suddenly, Victor's voice came at them. "Hey, be respectful, Yurio. Don't make your dam carry those things."

"It's fine, Victor. He's tired."

Victor shook his head, frowning. Chris leaned past him to eye the drama with interest. "He has too many excuses as it is. It's time for him to act like a proper Alpha." To Yuri, he added: "Didn't you say you would do some things differently?"

That actually seemed to mean something to Yuri, who stared at Victor whilst looking a lot more awake than before. Yuuri was surprised when he suddenly reached over to tug impatiently at the two satchels he'd slung over his shoulder.

"You don't have to—"

"I'm trying to do the right thing." He rolled his eyes irritably when Yuuri hesitated. "Are you saying not to?"

"…No."

"Good." Yuri snatched their two bags and stormed towards the door, yanking it open. To Chris, he added over his shoulder: "If I get lice from being in your shitty apartment, I'll punch your face in!"

"He's so charming. Come kiss me goodnight, Yurio!"

"Why don't you kill me instead?" Yuri suggested.

Victor ignored them, shaking silver strands from his face as he took Yuuri's hand, turning it with care to show the delicate skin of his inner wrist; Victor kissed it. His heart was in his eyes as he smiled up at his Omega from his seat on the couch. "You'll be alright?"

Yuuri's breath hitched; his neck arched delicately.

"Y-Yes."

"Text me when you're at the hotel, okay?"

"They're walking two blocks, Victor." Chris rolled his eyes, opening another beer with a _snap_. "Not going to war."

"I'll text you," Yuuri promised anyway.

Chris, as an unmated Alpha, couldn't know how difficult it was for Victor to let Yuuri walk out the door without him. Alphas bonded to Betas tended to be less anxious regarding their mate's movements; Alphas with Omegas were in a constant state of preoccupation.

Nevertheless, Victor waved goodbye as his mate and pup left—though after about a minute, he couldn't help standing and walking over to linger by Chris's large window high over the city road.

"That looks exhausting."

"What does?" Victor asked without turning around. He squinted against the glare of headlights from two cars puttering down the street. He brightened upon spotting a shock of white-blond hair accompanied by a figure Victor would recognize from any distance away.

"Breeding with an Omega." Kicking his socked feet up onto the coffee table, Chris crossed his arms over his chest. "I'm not stupid, Victor, and you've shown me his skate outfit; he'll barely be able to wear underwear, never mind a scarf on the ice tomorrow. Why is isn't he marked right now?"

Victor's head snapped around. His sky-colored eyes were narrowed. "Why were you looking at his neck?"

"I didn't look," Chris corrected him. "I smelled."

"Why were you _smelling_ him?"

"What kind of question is that?" demanded Chris incredulously. "I have a great sense of smell! Look, I don't want to take him from you. I'm trying to understand if anything's the matter."

For the first time in quite a while, Victor found himself at a loss for words.

There was a few seconds of awkward silence. The tenant above Chris's apartment walked across their unit; the footsteps were deafening in the quiet.

"You don't have to say anything," Chris conceded finally. Clearly he was disappointed though.

Running a hand agitatedly through his hair, Victor stopped himself halfway, recalling his self-perceived thinning hairline anxiously. "It's not simple like that."

With care, Victor gave a highly edited version of events from the heat that had become a nesting; such moments were highly private and details were not parted with on a whim.

To his credit, the Swiss skater asked no clarifying questions; he sat in uncharacteristic silence, sipping on his beer and making only vague noises of understanding or agreement. When it came to the events of Yuuri calling him through their bond and the subsequent realization that Yuri had managed to slip past both Yuuri and Victor's awareness through still-unknown means, Chris was smart enough to not make any sound at all.

"You'd say we're friends, right Victor? Allies?"

Surprised, Victor considered this question. He didn't think Chris had ever openly made such a claim before, but hardly disputed it. Indeed, if Victor had to say he only had one very close friend somewhere, it would be here with Chris; if Victor had need of an ally to defend his Omega, Victor would certainly count on Chris's help if it was available.

Victor told him they were.

"Then," Chris went on, "you can trust what I'm saying. Everything will turn out alright tomorrow, okay? This is my home and I know the etiquette here more than you do. European Omegas consider their heat cycle schedule to be highly guarded information." Chris shrugged. "No legitimate journalist will question you about the mark, if that's your reasoning. It would be career suicide."

"I'm concerned," Victor admitted, even after being told that. "I don't want everyone to think Yuuri isn't mine anymore."

In a surprisingly somber way, Chris clapped a hand on Victor's shoulder in a brotherly gesture. "You might not have that choice for now. At least the people that count already know."

Victor made himself smile at that. "I guess that's right… Hey, you're pretty smart now."

Chris grinned. "I told you that I'd show you how the Swiss do things."

"Yes," Victor allowed, "but I had thought you were talking about pornography."

"There's still time for that."

"Pass."

* * *

Their short walk from Chris's apartment, past the ice rink, and to the hotel was made in silence. The air was cold and Yuuri congratulated himself on dressing his pup warmly for the journey.

"Don't sit," Yuuri warned as Yuri made to do just that. The Omega shut Yuri's hotel door securely after both of them had cleared the threshold. It was lovely and warm in the cozy room. "You won't want to get up again."

Yuri said nothing, but allowed himself to yawn freely now that only his dam was present. The blond hovered sleepily at the foot of the bed as Yuuri prepared his bath. The Omega turned on the hot water first, leaving that to run while turning up the heater and all the lighting in the small room. There were several fluffy towels stacked neatly on a brass rack; Yuuri spread one over the floor's cold cream tile and picked two others to place within easy reach of the tub. Spotting plastic bags filled with dozens of unpacked toiletries, it took Yuuri a moment to sort through them to find basic shampoo and conditioner. A bar of soap towards the bottom concluded his search, and Yuuri placed all three items on the small ledge near the bath, pausing to turn the temperature of the water down as it spewed thick steam that gave a comforting warmth to Yuuri's chilled skin from the walk over.

"Alright," Yuuri permitted, finally stepping out to get Yuri's attention. Yuri, though not sitting, was nevertheless nodding off whilst leaning against the wall. "Yurio? Wash up a little, okay?"

Yuri groaned, pushing off from the wall to support himself. Another jaw-cracking yawn tore from his mouth and in short order, Yuuri had Yuri packed away into the steaming confines of the washroom.

With the instinct to care for his pup sated, Yuuri closed the door quietly to allow Yuri his privacy and settled onto the edge of the unmade bed. He fished his phone out of his pocket and began to compose a text to Victor to let him know they had arrived safely.

Sent text messages (1)

To: My Victor ( ˘ ³˘)

 _I'm just dropping off Yurio to his room._ (･∀･)

Yuuri didn't even have time to put his phone back in his pocket before Victor replied.

Received text messages (1)

From: My Victor ( ˘ ³˘)

 _Yay! I'll be there soon. I can't wait to scent you, pretty flower!_ ⊂((・▽・))⊃

Victor had included the standard Alpha and Omega phone-provided emojis as well: a wide-eyed Omega with thick eyelashes and a tiny blush averting its gaze away from the Alpha emoji next to it which bore a serious face and a little sword.

With that task complete, Yuuri began sorting through Yuri's shoulder bag. His newly sharpened skates were there along with a bottle of oil to condition the hard leather of the skate boot and a small microfiber towel. Yuuri set those aside and unzipped the smaller pouch of the bag, pulling out Yuri's phone when he found it to be there.

It was locked, which neither surprised nor inconvenienced him.

"Set alarm zero seven hundred hours," he told the artificial intelligence inhabiting the phone while holding down the lower button.

A tiny cat shimeji appeared on the screen and gave a little bow. Satisfied, Yuuri scanned the room for the phone charger and, upon spotting it on the bedside table, plugged it in. As he did so, the small chirp of a text message coming through made Yuuri glance down.

The preview feature had been disabled, but the name of the person contacting his pup was still visible. Yuuri's Russian was spotty at best, though improving through idle conversation with Victor. Still, he was pretty sure the contact's name here in Cyrillic was—

"'Ivan Plisetsky?'"

Yuuri's brow furrowed. With a last name like that, clearly this was a relation. It was foolish to be surprised, but it honestly had never occurred to him that Yuri might have anyone except his grandfather, who occasionally was mentioned but Yuuri had yet to meet. Victor's earlier words came back to him:

" _They're both pretty rotten…"_

 _Is this one of Yuri's sires?_

"I hope they both have a hangover tomorrow."

Schooling his features into something less affronted, Yuuri settled on a pleasant smile, straightening up. His uneasy contemplation was pushed roughly aside. "Sorry, but I think they have more sense than that."

Yuri didn't look like he believed him, but also didn't care enough to argue the point as he toweled his hair dry. He didn't seem to notice or care that Yuuri had clearly gone through his things and seemed much more alert, though tired. "Are you going to stand around for a long time or what?"

Realizing that he was being kicked out, Yuuri nonetheless hesitated. "Are you sure you want to stay here alone?"

"I'm not five!"

"I understand that. Just—" Yuuri rifled through his pockets for a few seconds, finally producing a plastic white key card with the hotel's emblem on it. He held it out to Yuri, who just stared. Biting his lip, Yuri instead placed it on the nearby coffee table, face flushed. "Incase you change your mind. I—I had them bring a cot."

When the blond continued not to speak, Yuuri figured that was the end of the conversation.

"Well." He turned around, trying not to feel rejected as he picked up his bag from next to Yuri's. "Goodnight, Yurio."

"…Hey, Katsudon."

Blinking, Yuuri slowly faced the young Alpha again. Yuri was digging something out of the bed sheets. His light hair hid his face, but that didn't stop Yuuri from noticing the bright red tint to his neck.

Yuuri was stopped from wondering about that as Yuri flipped back the quilt and sheets, revealing—

 _Oh… Yurio…_

Yuuri felt his throat tighten with a strange sort of heat. His gray knitted sweater, Victor's white undershirt, and the olive-green scarf that Yuuri and Victor stole from each other so routinely that it was unclear who it actually belonged to were all there; Yuri had hoarded them beside his pillow just as a young child would collect items from their parents and stash them in their bed. In Japan, many fondly referred to it as a "dragon's hoard."

Dizzied, Yuuri scarcely knew what to expect as Yuri marched right up to him with his entire face glowing pink and thrust the gray sweater from the care package into Yuuri's arms.

Yuuri hardly had time to be panicked by the rejection before Yuri barked out: "Take this. Give me that."

Yuuri blinked owlishly past the knitted material that had been shoved forcefully at him, following the blonde's demanding gesture as he pointed out the black wool sweater he was currently wearing.

"My—My sweater?"

"Just give me it."

Clutching the rejected clothing, Yuuri couldn't help but ask: "W—Why?"

If possible, Yuri turned redder still. "That one doesn't smell like— _like anything_ anymore, okay? Why are you so nosy? Stop asking me so many stupid questions!"

Clearly it had cost Yuri a great deal to admit even that much. It was more than Yuuri had ever expected. He had felt ridiculous packing the small stash of clothing containing his and Victor's scent; the piece of his nest had been almost unbearable to part with.

Would Yuri throw it out in annoyance? Yuuri hadn't known, but his Omega mind had been adamant. On that rare occasion, Yuuri had allowed himself to be a slave to his instincts as he hid the bag in Yuri's suitcase.

As anxious as he had been to take the risk, he was three-fold that in contentment now.

There was nothing for it but to comply with the request. Setting his items down, Yuuri carefully removed the pullover he wore. He adjusted his glasses with one hand while Yuri snatched the sweater from his other.

"Do you want anything else?" Yuuri asked, feeling surreal as he watched Yuri strategically tuck the new addition to his dragon's hoard right next to his pillow.

"No." The blonde paused. "Goodnight," he added awkwardly, refusing to look over.

 _And even a "goodnight."_

Would wonders never cease?

Yuuri let himself out, ensuring the lock clicked automatically shut to his satisfaction as the door closed fully. Two floors up and several hallways away, Yuuri knocked on the door to his and Victor's room, wrapping his arms around himself. The corridors were chilly and it hadn't even occurred to Yuuri to put the gray sweater back on as he wandered upstairs.

The door opened after a few seconds, showing Victor's broad grin and cheerfully glittering eyes.

"It's my Yuuri! I'm so happy!"

Yuuri laughed as Victor all but dragged him past the threshold, squirming as the silver hairs tickled his neck. "You're acting pretty surprised considering I texted you."

Victor inhaled his scent deeply; Yuuri held still to give better access. "I'm not surprised. I told you—I'm just really happy." Pulling back, Victor reached over to tuck a piece of Yuuri's hair behind his right ear. His aqua eyes were nearly vibrating with love. "Thank you for thinking of me. I do miss Chris, on occasion. It was nice to be together for a while… Oh, isn't that your sweater that was lost?"

Smiling down at the fabric in his hands, Yuuri pressed close to his Alpha.

He had a lot to tell him.

* * *

Victor's Alpha mind woke a few seconds before the rest of him did, unfurling its keen senses to acquire a taste for its surroundings before he could sleepily wrap his thoughts around even the concept of being conscious.

The most critical piece of information was reported back to him first:

His Omega was present—securely curled into the warm protection of Victor's bare chest.

 _That's enough to start with_ , Victor decided, yawning into his mate's soft coal strands.

Asleep under him, Yuuri reflexively arched his neck to present his left scent gland to his dominant. The skin was thin there; designed to take an Alpha's teeth. Old scars glinted faintly white from Victor's previous claims, all of which had healed in time to form smooth, if more delicate, skin.

Breathing in his mate's scent deeply revealed what he'd already known would soon come to pass; his scent had finally completely gone from where it used to be infused in Yuuri's neck. Victor didn't like it, but he didn't have to; he had to be patient and, in the meantime, frequently reapply his scent on the surface of Yuuri's skin.

Sighing, Victor opened his eyes reluctantly, exhaling in a long, slow sigh. There would be no sleeping after _that_ realization.

"Mmm… Is anything the matter?"

Victor propped his chin with a hand carefully. "I didn't mean to wake you."

Yuuri made a sleepy noise, rolling onto his back with a yawn.

Spying his own phone charging just out of reach, it suited Victor's purposes just as well to pick up Yuuri's from the nightstand just next to him. Handing it wordlessly to the submissive, Victor took it back after Yuuri pressed his right index finger to the home button to override the key code without bothering to open his eyes. Swiping through the app tiles—most in Japanese, a few in English—Victor clicked open a cleanly done icon with a ribbon-like "D" etched over a small nurse's hat, shifting Yuuri to a more convenient position in his arms.

" _Welcome back,_ _Yuuri_ _!"_ the cycle-tracker— _Dynamix_ —greeted him. The three iconic Dynamic emojies set as the default on most phones popped up with a tiny chiming noise: the sword-wielding Alpha, shield-wielding Beta, and that doe-eyed Omega that Victor found fantastically cute.

The menu opened with two prompts:

" _Track your heat?"_

Victor selected that over the second option _("Track_ _Victor_ _'s rut?"_ ).While Victor was the first to admit to being an absentminded kind of person, he wasn't so inattentive as to need an external reminder for a piece of information so critical. Fortunately it wasn't memory that tracked his trimonthly rut, but instead an internal clock that young Alphas became aware of with their first rut at the age of about sixteen years.

Things were hardly so simple for Omegas.

"Your heat moved backward two and a half days," Victor said, skimming the data. His disappointment was obvious.

Long lashes brushed his chest lightly. "It's the cold weather in St. Petersberg." A pause. Then, seemingly unable to stop himself, Yuuri added: "Sorry."

"It's not something you need to apologize for."

The Omega didn't answer.

As he viewed the chart displaying Yuuri's heat pattern, an alert popped up.

 _Reminder!_ the small caption read. _Birth control selected,_ Heat Ease: BreedingOmega, Male _, should be replaced in two months!_

Victor glanced down at where Yuuri's left upper arm was tucked comfortably under his head. The Omega's chest rose and fell against the almost imperceptible outline of his birth control implant, no larger than a grain of rice and yet sophisticated enough to send real-time feedback to the Dynamix app that it synced with to communicate hormone-based predictors regarding his heats.

Well, Yuuri didn't seem like he'd appreciate that conversation just yet; not so soon after his complex streak of pride that still occasionally eluded Victor's understanding had taken a hit from his heat delay.

 _Still_ , Victor thought, clearing the reminder absently as he watched his Yuuri cuddled against him with a pleasant tightness in his chest. _I can't pass this up._

There was no resisting his Alpha urges to brag about his perfect mate, and Victor didn't try to stop himself. Opening Instragram with every intention of taking a picture to post for the world to see, his mind was already on clever tags when he was unexpectedly hit in the face with literally thousands of notifications.

"Eh…?" Victor blinked. Though today marked the beginning of the Swiss Invitational, it was far too early in the morning for anything truly worth talking about to have occurred. Had Yuri done something even worse than fight? Victor wasn't sure he was motivated enough to bail anyone out of Swiss prison just yet.

"What?"

Victor had seen Yuuri check his social media accounts only seven hours or so ago; he'd received a message from Phichit that he'd read to him after Victor had performed a final territorial sweep of their hotel room to ensure his Omega's safety as they slept.

"Victor, what? Is something wrong?"

It was a photo.

The notifications all revolved around _one photo_.

It was clearly taken when Yuri had met Victor and Yuuri at Geneva International Airport, but from an unexpected angle. Rather than photo evidence of Victor flailing all over the horrified younger Alpha, Victor saw that the photo had been cropped to show only his submissive mate.

It was a lovely photo of Yuuri, actually, and Victor might have enjoyed it if it hadn't been for the knowledge that millions of Alphas worldwide likely were taking equal pleasure in examining his mate. The Omega had been watching Victor maul Yuri at the time with his smile half-hidden behind a hand and a soft flush coloring his face. His eyes looked impossibly large and, under his black glasses, filled with the most heart-achingly innocent sort of sweetness.

Yuuri seemed terribly young and pretty.

It was just unfortunate that the scarf he'd been wearing nearly always to conceal the near imperceptibility of his mating mark had not been replaced when they disembarked from their long, exhausting flight.

All of that was brushed off easily enough, but the caption on the photo… that was teeth grinding.

" _Just saw katsuki-yuuri at Geneva International and he doesn't have a claim mark anymore? #Omega #GorgeousOmega #WouldMarry #DreamsComeTrue #YuuriKatsuki #SwissInvitational2017."_

"Victor?"

He'd hardly been aware that he'd been vocalizing Alpha sounds. No wonder Yuuri sounded nervous.

"It's…" It wasn't _fine_ exactly, but it also wasn't _not_ fine.

Honestly, his own thoughts were confusing him and his silence wasn't helping Yuuri at all. Still, Victor couldn't say with certainty what to do. He and Yuuri had never spent a heat apart since they'd become a breeding pair or had one interrupted in this way and therefore Yuuri _always_ walked away from it with a deep mating mark on his neck.

"May I see?"

With a resigned grimace, Victor at last simply handed Yuuri the phone. He watched silently as the brunet's honey stare swept over the screen with a discerning eye. He said nothing as Yuuri read the picture's caption, but didn't expect him to scroll down through the comments too. Victor hadn't read them but he couldn't imagine they were all polite going by general knowledge of the Internet as well as the pink blush appearing high on Yuuri's cheekbones.

"Is that what they'll be thinking about when we skate?" asked Yuuri, visibly paler. Anxiety—a recurrent issue for him—colored his voice, and Victor knew he had to head that off early or Yuuri would never recover his nerve.

"They'll be thinking that our program is beautiful and we skate it perfectly together."

"Our hard work won't matter if they're just going to be staring at my neck."

Victor could feel his Alpha mind become restless at this statement. He pushed the feeling away impatiently; his Omega was the priority right now. "It's still there—just a little." Victor ran his fingers over Yuuri's soft neck; the pink new skin dipped minutely under his touch. On reflex, Yuuri tilted his head to give space to do as he pleased. "The filter that person chose makes things look worse than they are. I'll scent you very well before we leave here and every moment we have alone today."

Yuuri seemed to take that in, placated over the space of several seconds. "It doesn't matter anyway. I don't need a mark to know that I'm yours; I've learned that by now."

"Yuuri," Victor murmured reverently, pressing his enchanting Omega to the bed; the bed they'd slept in the night before; the sheets where Victor had kissed him, smiled at him, and held him close throughout the night

They didn't need a heat or rut for _this_.

" _Oh_ ," gasped Yuuri, releasing a puff of intoxicating scent from his neck in response to Victor's own. It was perfect; Yuuri was perfect.

"I'm in love with you," Victor breathed against Yuuri's neck. "I'm in love with you, Yuuri, and it matters to me that you know."

Yuuri swallowed thickly under Victor's tender skylight-blue gaze. His eye looked glassy with emotion, though it was hardly the first time Victor had told him this. "Y—You've always acted how you've felt… and how you feel makes me so—" Yuuri paused as his voice broke, turning away to scrub his eyes with the back of his hand. "Yes, I know that… Of course I've known that and—"

Yuuri took a great shuddering breath, clearly embarrassed to find tears making slow tracks down his cheeks. They came faster as Victor reached up to dab them away with care, but the Alpha allowed the silence to stand, giving his sweet mate time to say what he'd like. Victor simply watched him as he collected himself; this man in his arms was… everything.

"I've never… wanted anyone except you in this way, Victor. I couldn't ever. And it has nothing to do with Dynamics or instincts, you know… I'm just in love with you."

Victor kissed him.

It was meant as something soft—the promise of togetherness—but Yuuri's slender hands made it clear that his plans were different than that.

"Yuuri!" Victor said with alarm, holding himself back by sheer nerve. Very rarely did the prim and proper Omega throw himself at Victor with his intentions so clearly revolving around coupling. "My love—I'm not sure we should… You have so much trouble with our short skate choreography after I've taken you—"

"I don't care about that—I'll accept those consequences— _please_ … I want to be close to you. Please, Victor—I'm asking you."

All thoughts of skating and competition and whatever else vanished from the Alpha's mind in that moment; and then there was nothing except Yuuri Katsuki and Victor Nikiforov.

The sweetness of the moment turned to something rougher and frantic as their lips met. The room turned unbearably hot, but Victor didn't care. He didn't care about that as he gripped at Yuuri's wrists and cared even less as Yuuri gasped out his name over and over again.

"You can't mark me, Victor—!" Yuuri got out in a sliver of clarity when his dominant began nipping ritualistically at his neck. The almost desperate arch of his neck belayed his statement. "The bleeding—"

"I know!" his Alpha all but growled. _Oh_ , of course he knew; it was the only thing stopping him for the past two weeks! Victor's skin heated at the thought of how well Yuuri had taken his teeth there before. He would have taken offense from his mate refusing his mark if he hadn't felt the incoherent want and profound guilt rolling off their bond in waves.

Victor hushed him gently. "Hey, that's alright. Don't think about that right now."

"Tell me—" Yuuri paused, his cheeks turning pink; he averted his eyes but continued with his request: "Tell me I'm yours, Victor."

 _God, he'll be the death of me._

"You're _mine_ ," Victor hissed right up against Yuuri's left scent gland, clinging to every drop of control he possessed when Yuuri whined and arched his neck further. His knew Yuuri loved to be told such a thing and so reasserted the statement. "You're mine, Yuuri. Submit to me only, okay?"

" _Yes_ ," Yuuri gasped, squirming. "Yes, okay."

To mutual preference, their coupling was fervent and with a degree of harshness that appealed to their baser Dynamic instincts.

Victor wanted so badly to sink his teeth deeply into Yuuri's neck as he bred him that it nearly tore his heart out to resist. However, if that was done, there was nothing they could do short of renouncing their place in competition. A fresh, unhealed mating mark was both obscene and private; such things were hidden away until at least it had begun to knit. Even the reference to it should he wear a scarf would be too much for Yuuri's sensibilities to take as their skating was broadcasted on international television.

The skating costume that Yuuri would wear that day had been ordered months ago; tight and somewhat revealing when the lace shifted. His neck would remain bare, which hadn't been a problem when Victor and Yuuri had drafted their costume designs, assured in their knowledge that there would be a recent yet distant enough heat before the Swiss Invitational to provide a suitable claim.

"My Omega," Victor crooned when it was over and the two of them were still joined together in the crudest of ways. "My Yuuri."

"V-Victor." Yuuri shivered under him, occasionally convulsing in the aftershocks of their breeding.

"Are you alright?" Victor asked quietly after a few seconds, running his hand through Yuuri's sweaty locks. "You're shaking a lot."

With a breathless laugh, Yuuri smiled at him. "I'm… happy."

"Good." Victor pressed a soft kiss to his forehead. "That's good."

Alpha or just Victor—it didn't matter; every bit of his instincts and heart and head were warm and soft with Yuuri in his arms.

"I'll always want you," Victor suddenly needed to say. "I swear on my life."

"Please always mean that."

"I will." _I always will._


	7. Confrontational

**Unintentionally Yours**

 _articas_ursula (AO3)_

 _artica's-ursula (FFN)_

 _Beta: TheDisreputableDog_

* * *

Chapter 7: Confrontational

* * *

 _Grand Prix Final, several years ago_

Things were going pretty fucking great for Yuri Plisetsky, thanks for asking.

The gold medal proclaiming him junior-division champion for the second time in a row hung proudly around his neck as Yuri strutted down the back hallways of the Sochi Ice Palace where the events of the Grand Prix Final were coming to a close. The Swedish boy that had made third place determinedly pretended he didn't exist as they passed each other, raising Yuri's already upbeat spirits to new heights.

"So it's senior-division next year, right?" a member of the press had called to him as he and Yakov departed the kiss and cry session a few hours ago. His had been the last free-skate—the score of which had secured his continued junior champion status.

In light of that, the answering arrogance in his voice had been justified as he replied: " _Obviously_."

It was good to be the best.

Now he just needed someone to lord it over.

"Georgi!" he shouted, recognizing the quiffed dark hair of the man walking ahead of him much farther down the corridor.

His rinkmate's garish scarlet skate costume was a disgusting reminder of his obsession with his new girlfriend, Anya Vetrova, who Yuri was sick, tired and pissed off of hearing about. The two had entered the pairs skating and had done fairly—not _nearly_ as well as Yuri, but well enough that the blond was willing to admit to knowing them in public.

It seemed Georgi was too far away to hear his name. Huffing in annoyance, Yuri hoisted his skate bag higher on his shoulder and quickened his pace.

"Geo—"

"— _rgi_!"

The brunette locks of Anya flounced in rich waves down her back as she appeared just off a side passage directly in front of Yuri's rinkmate. Her tone was hardly friendly and her skates were flashes of white as she sped to stare Georgi down nearly nose-to-nose.

 _Alphas have no business trying to mate with each other._

"You nearly _dropped_ me. I don't care if the judges didn't see it, but I felt it during the lift!"

Everything about Georgi seemed to sag under his girlfriend's rage. "Anya, I never would have let you fall! Let's not discuss here—"

"Not anywhere!" The Alpha female began to turn on her skate guard to start walking down the hallway where surely Yuri would be spotted. While Yuri wouldn't mind having new ammunition to throw in Georgi's face, his girlfriend had a sharp presence that irritated his newfound Alpha awareness immeasurably.

Yuri quickly pivoted down through a smaller hallway that he thought would probably lead to a locker area of some kind, but was stopped again as a new set of voices approaching from the direction he'd been headed both surprised and annoyed him.

"Yuuri, just—will you _stop walking_ for a minute?"

It was the first time since his secondary traits began to arrive that Yuri had been around so many strangers. The scents had been overwhelming on his first day at the rink, which was why Yakov had dragged him there the day before to acclimate and/or spite him with a bad headache. In any case, he was already very accurate in pinpointing other Dynamics. For this reason, the blond was already aware of two people just on the edge of his senses: a Beta and—

 _Oh_.

Without thinking, Yuri ducked into one of the sitting alcoves nearby and immediately felt foolish for doing so. He didn't have any reason to hide—definitely not from some Omega. So why was he crouched in the shadows like Chris hiding from real clothes?!

Just a short ways away, the conversation continued.

"You told me so."

"That doesn't excuse his actions!" an older man insisted; his tone was coated with thick frustration. "I never wanted to be right about this."

"I know." The Omega, Yuuri Katsuki, paused, both vocally and in his step as he came to an uneven stop only a hairsbreadth from Yuri's hiding space. Yuri pressed himself as close to the wall as possible, attempting to stifle his breathing with a fist. His shallow breaths suddenly seemed so loud.

"Celestino… I don't think I can go in there after all tonight."

"You have to!"

Yuri was suddenly confronted by the right side of Katsuki's profile as he stepped back, possibly surprised by the conviction in his coach's tone.

He smelled… nice.

"The competition may have ended for them, Yuuri, but it's still happening for you." Yuri saw the Omega cross his arms over his chest anxiously. "If you run now from the banquet, it will be ten times harder to face these people next time."

"Next time," the Omega echoed faintly. "Celestino… I don't think I can handle a 'next time' either. The idea of humiliating myself like that again is making me sick." Katsuki seemed to reconsider that. "Or that might be the blinders."

"It's still so bad? That was the lowest dose that would do what you needed; sorry. Do you want anything?"

"…I want to be alone now. Please."

The words were unexpectedly brusque and, even without actually seeing the coach's face, Yuri could just imagine his woebegone expression. Though he didn't exactly go out of his way to do it, Yuri nevertheless knew a thing or two about offending people.

Yuri would rate Katsuki's amateur efforts a moderate four out of ten.

The coach spoke up after a few seconds of silence. "Alright, I'll leave. But Yuuri… I'll be here for you, if you'll let me."

Katsuki did not let him, instead choosing to remain silent for several uncomfortable seconds before there was a sigh and then the sound of footsteps leaving.

When Katsuki didn't also immediately go his own way, Yuri suddenly realized that he might be stuck in this ridiculous hiding spot for a while yet. The alternative would be to stroll out into the open and pretend skulking around in dark corners of buildings was something he did all the time.

Yuri wasn't ready to look that weird yet.

He was spared further introspection by the unexpected opening of a door and then the firm _thunk_ as it closed.

"Heh?" Yuri hurled himself from the alcove, forgetting all about how that might look. It hardly mattered anyway: the hallway was empty; Katsuki was gone. The only door around—the men's room—made it fairly obvious as to where he'd vanished.

So for no good reason except that his Alpha mind told him to, Yuri went there also.

The air was destroyed by the acrid taste of distress pheromones, which coated the back of Yuri's throat with each breath. His Alpha mind, barely fledged, thrummed ineffectively in his ear next to his quickening heart rate.

 _A threat?_

Nothing seemed obvious with a cursory scan of the bathroom. Only one stall door was closed and there was nowhere else for anyone to lurk. A soft sniffling noise from inside it made Yuri realize he wanted nothing more than to have never come in here, but it was too late for that. His Alpha instincts seemed pretty sure that it was his duty to make the Omega stop crying.

"Stop crying!" Yuri demanded, slamming his closed fist into the scarlet metal stall divider with a loud bang.

Unexpectedly, the door immediately gave way, the momentum causing it to bang loudly against the wall behind it and oscillate back to crash against the doorframe once more before stopping to remain half-ajar.

The unexpected sound made Yuri jump, irritating his new Alpha senses with its abrasive noise. Well, the Omega would definitely see him as a weak person now, jumping at his own actions. To compensate, Yuri tossed his head even more arrogantly.

"You're acting like it's a real loss and that's pathetic!"

Katsuki stared at him—his pants thankfully on—with his dumb sparkly Omega-eyes practically taking up half his face as he retreated further back against the toilet.

 _What was that reaction about?_ Yuri was even comforting him!

"Do you ever even say anything?" Yuri asked very nicely at a yell.

"Um—" Katsuki started, clearly off-balance. Like he was surprised that Yuri expected him to talk or something. Also his neck was bent in a weird way and he barely was making any eye contact.

 _What the hell is with this guy?_

"I'm already tired of talking to you while you're in there. Get out." Yuri jerked a thumb towards the sinks.

For a minute, Katsuki just gaped at him. Yuri let him do it for awhile because everyone knew you were supposed to be nice to Omegas or they'd cry all over you; well, even more than Katsuki was doing now. At the seven-second mark, Katsuki finally began to move hesitantly, edging around Yuri like the blond might bite him before scrambling away to eye him from the paper towels dispenser.

"So what's your problem? Did your dog die or something?"

Katsuki looked horrified and, okay, maybe that had been pretty shitty of Yuri to say, but at least it got him to start talking.

"No! How did you know I had a dog?"

" _Tch_ , everyone knows that. Reblogging pictures of you with your stupid dog is how to get Alpha followers on Tumblr."

The Omega's cheeks flushed pink, which sort of surprised Yuri. He figured Katsuki would be used to Alphas being interested in him and said as much.

"It's... overwhelming a little," Katsuki admitted haltingly. His arms had gone to wrap around himself and he looked a lot smaller than Yuri remembered from the sports and social magazines his boarding school roommate bought ever since presenting as an Alpha whenever the Omega was on the cover.

If there was a post-presenting Alpha starter-pack, a first crush on Yuuri Katsuki would be in it. It was one of the many things alienating him from his peers: Yuri had zero interest in the Omega despite their shared sport.

" _Tch,_ well don't be pissed off; you got far in competition. For an Omega," he added without thought.

Now, Yuri thought he was doing pretty well at this whole comforting business, actually. He continued to think that as surely as he knew that Victor was a loser no matter what the scoreboards said. So he was rather taken aback when the Omega's entire presence switched from that hand-wringing anxiety to red-faced offense.

"I'm as good as any Alpha," he said quietly, as though unpracticed in the art of praising himself.

"Then why are you acting like you can't face them anymore!?"

"Because I love being an Omega the most; it's people trying to draw my instincts out unfairly that makes things so difficult!"

… _Wow. That was honest._

There was a long, intensely awkward silence as Yuri openly stared at the now-mortified Katsuki, who looked surprised at himself. The older skater had a palm pressed to his mouth as though to keep his loose words in, but it was too late.

 _I'm shit at being nice to people_ , Yuri finally had to admit to himself as Katsuki slowly lowered his hand. _It's better for everyone if I just keep being an asshole._

Yet to the blonde's horror, Katsuki looked at him with sweet eyes and said: "I've… never said that out loud before… It felt nice to tell that to someone."

"D-don't confess anything else to me!" shouted Yuri fervently, waving his arms even as he felt his skin warm under Katsuki's small smile. It was an odd feeling; like how he might feel if his grandfather had been present to watch him accept the junior championship gold medal.

"Alright," Katsuki agreed. His slender fingers pulled his scarf still tighter around his unmarred neck. "I'm going to go tonight; to the banquet." Katsuki smiled nervously, ducking his chin to the warmth of his scarf. "You helped me realize that I always was going to go, so thank you."

"I barely did anything!"

"In any case… should you be back here where no one can find you? Aren't your family and friends wondering where you are?"

Yuri considered that bitterly.

Family? His male sire had said he would come, but even this long after his performance Yuri had yet to receive even an apology via text for being a no-show. Far more likely his sire would hold it against him that he'd neglected to turn in his assignment due today; so trivial!

And friends? His personality being what it was, Yuri was very aware that he'd made his share of enemies on the ice. A combination of being a gifted skater and possessing a rude disposition drew the jealous and offended to him like bugs to shit. It wasn't real life that people went out of their way to befriend you when you yelled at them; that was manga and anime. The acquaintances he'd managed to make despite this were a miracle, but honestly Yuri wouldn't be surprised either if they one day didn't care to deal with his unsociability any longer.

"No."

The dark-haired boy didn't seem exactly pitying, but came uncomfortably close to it.

"Then I'll hope that you find someone to wonder where you are."

His insight was so painfully close to the mark that Yuri suddenly found it quite impossible to remain there with Katsuki any longer. It felt a bit like running away, but Yuri nevertheless departed without another word, glaring hard at the ground and thoroughly unaware of how his own future would intertwine with Katsuki's in a few years' time.

Yuri would learn that it was indeed a warmhearted feeling to have someone wonder where he was. How could he have ever known back then that Yuuri Katsuki could make him want to be a good person?

How could he have known that anyone would sincerely think of him at all?

* * *

" _So what—you're not answering my calls now?"_

Yuri considered hanging up.

" _I've let you do anything you wanted—mostly because you're completely out of control—but I'm not negotiating about weekly check-ins, Yuri. Call me back within an hour or you will find Nikiforov's legal authority to sign you in to any more competitions taken away. Don't test my resolve."_

The voicemail ended and Yuri looked quickly at his phone's clock. Even if he'd meant it when he ignored his sire's text last night, he technically had been in the shower when the call came through eight minutes ago.

The small victory of being petty enough to wait exactly fifty-one minutes before calling was thoroughly tempting… but Yuri didn't have time for that; he was meeting his actual sire and dam to leave for the ice rink in fifteen minutes.

It rang for a while when Yuri reluctantly tapped " _call back_ ". He was tentatively congratulating himself on avoiding having to speak to a live person rather than the voicemail he'd soon be transferred to when someone picked up.

" _Hello, Yuri."_

"I'm calling to tell you I'm still alive."

" _Hm, that's something then, isn't it?"_ There was a pause as muffled voices in the background posed something with a questioning intonation. Yuri ignored it, refolding the sweater he'd demanded from Katsudon last night. A long time ago, he had tried all sorts of schemes to hold his sire's undivided attention. It was sort of a recent thing that he'd realized his Alpha-sire just genuinely wasn't that interested in him.

Knowing that hardly made it any easier to stomach.

" _Why didn't you answer me yesterday?"_

"I forgot your number."

" _Then this conversation is just a miracle, isn't it?"_

"Well I called. You bothered to answer." Yuri narrowed his eyes. "To my extreme shock."

 _Bastard_.

There was little in life he disliked more than exchanging words with his biological male sire. His female sire had wandered off to bond with a Beta ages ago and rarely intruded on Yuri's affairs, which suited him just fine.

" _Tell me now. Why is your online academy sending me emails about you not completing tasks?"_

"I don't know," he lied.

" _Really? Are you really going to lie right now?_ "

Yuri scowled, twisting the fabric harshly. The wool stretched but didn't go back to its original shape. "It was two projects only—not that you asked. And one of them was because I was busy _winning gold_ at the Grand Prix Finals something like two years ago! Don't you even care about that!?"

" _Of course I care—"_

"—Oh _please_ —"

" _Don't interrupt me, Yuri."_

Yuri's jaw slammed shut with surprising force at the order, catching the side of his tongue. In contrast to his conscious seething, Yuri's Alpha mind was indifferent to the proceedings. Yes his sire was angry, but their bond was exceptionally weak. Where Yuri had panicked yesterday upon accidentally speculating on Katsudon's faithfulness to Victor, the most compelling thought it could come up with for obeying now was a vague " _I guess he's still my sire…"_

" _Don't say I'm unreasonable—god knows I've put up with your whims more than any other Alpha on the damn planet. And what—was the second assignment missed because of skating also? You're graduating secondary school whether you like it or not; do you understand that?"_

Even before he'd made up his mind with how to answer, Yuri's chest was already puffing up with pride. "No! I was at Yuuri Katsuki's home that day all afternoon; there wasn't any time."

" _Stop bullshitting me, Yuri—you haven't even rutted yet."_

The preening pride of name-dropping someone like the Omega icon vanished as soon as his mind had fully processed what his sire might have meant by saying that. Mortification flushed away any trace of smugness that might have stayed over. A vague feeling that he might be sick all over the floor accompanied his shriek of indignation.

"That's disgusting! I was fucking planning on eating something in a minute! What the hell are you even saying!?"

" _Certainly that isn't the reaction most young Alphas would have, and it did seem like you intended to shock me."_

"He's interested in my well-being; isn't that shocking enough to someone like you?"

Even while so furious, Yuri remained aware that announcing that Katsudon had just randomly assigned himself to be Yuri's parent and had asked no one would probably go over… not well; legally or otherwise, he couldn't say. So as badly as he wanted to rub it in this guy's face— _Yes, look, someone thinks I'm worth caring about!_ —he refrained.

" _So he's also supervising you at your competition right now?"_

"Yes," Yuri bragged, unwilling to stop himself. Katsudon was sweet and polite and proper: the perfect dam. So Yuri must be pretty great himself for someone like that to care about him, right? Improvising, he added, "Yuuri says he'll make sure I look nice for my program."

 _I never needed you—especially not anymore!_

Still, the conversation from there on out was… odd. There was nothing specifically that Yuri could put his finger on, but his sire's level of attention had shifted almost sideways. _Is Katsuki bringing you food? Is he telling you to sleep on time?_ It was the most indirect interest his sire had shown in his life for a very long time, leaving Yuri feeling both important and yet somehow fundamentally suspicious.

As the call ended, Yuri noticed a confusing mixture of embarrassment and anger swirling around and through him. An Alpha's first rut was not something to be discussed so sarcastically—certainly not by one's sire. And as much as Yuri had meant it as a weapon to show he didn't need him any longer, his sire had mostly ignored his intentions when he was asking about Katsudon; as though Yuri was merely a somewhat useful way to acquire information about _Yuuri Katsuki_.

And in the back of his heart—very, _very_ hidden away… god, there was no other way to say it:

Yuri's feelings were _hurt_.

He had neither the time nor desire to ponder the implications of feeling that way as he snagged his skate bag from beside the door and scooped the room key into his pocket. He paused for a moment to stare at the keycard Katsudon had left him for his and Victor's room last night.

" _Just… incase you change your mind."_

Yuri pocketed that too and shouldered his way out the door.

 _Did I get Katsudon into trouble?_

Yuri didn't pretend to know the ruling of these things, but he knew enough from his sires' divorce to know that his male sire was absolutely comfortable with throwing the law around to suit his needs; being an attorney, he was pretty good at it too. Thinking back, Yuri was relatively sure he hadn't said anything especially incriminating…

It was while considering these things that Yuri rounded the corner to bring the elevator into his sight. Despite only just recently waking, he felt as though he'd been up for hours; hardly conducive to a good first day of competition.

Even as Yuri reached out to call the lift, a _ding_ announced that a car had arrived at his floor. The door opened briskly after a few seconds and, without waiting for it to fully finish, Yuri stormed into the lift—directly into Katsudon.

Startled, Yuri found support with his hand against the wall—pushing three buttons by accident—while the Omega staggered briefly only to be caught up in Victor's arms.

"Honestly you need to look where you're going," Victor sighed at his charge, allowing his mate to stand on his own once more. "Why are you running into people all the time?"

"What do you mean 'all the time'!? It happened only once— _just now_!"

Victor laughed at him as the elevator gates shut again. "I've known you for a while now, Yurio. Your embarrassing moments aren't as spread out as you think."

"Ugh!"

Then Katsudon spoke up. "Did you sleep okay?"

It was really awful and embarrassing that his first instinct was to straighten up and preen under his dam's attentions. Victor's goading was so much easier to ignore when his Omega was in the room also, exuding that calming warmth that nearly made Yuri want to sleep some more. Katsudon was dressed in his Team Japan jacket with his hands tucked into the pockets and his glasses framing his honey-sweet eyes. He looked happy to see Yuri and for whatever reason, that made Yuri's soul ache with gratitude just a bit. Still, as embarrassing as it was to act like some kid, it was just _Katsudon_ ; it wasn't like it _counted_.

"Yeah. Fine."

"You didn't ask how I slept!" Victor bantered as they stopped on the next floor. Yuri grimaced at the multiple illuminated floor lights he'd accidentally pressed; this was going to be a long journey.

Answering Victor, Katsudon didn't even bat an eye. "I already know how you slept. You slept waking me up half the night with your annoying arm movements."

A surprised snicker broke through Yuri's lips before he was even aware of doing it. It was a rare thing when Katsudon passed a quick remark at Victor's expense, so even a mild one like that was unexpected.

The lift doors, which had opened to the next floor to an empty hallway, were nearly closed when suddenly it reopened with a smart _ding_. Yuri looked away from his "parents" of sorts more out of instinct than interest and sighed in frustration as what he saw registered.

"Oh my god. It's too early to have to see you."

JJ immediately brightened upon perceiving some new inconvenience with which to burden the surly blond. "Small-Yuri!" he said grandly, tilting his lidded coffee cup in an imitation of a toast. His dark hair was neatly combed and, despite being indoors, he was wearing a pair of smart sunglasses with his initials smeared onto them like everything else he freaking owned. Hastily, he put an arm out to prevent the elevator from closing again. "Do you know who I saw just now? Cao Bin! It's lucky you missed him; he looked irritated and no one needs another fight."

"Why are you rambling on about things I don't care about?" Yuri sneered, a hand on his hip. "When I crush that loser today it will be for good reason."

The door began to close again.

This time Yuri stopped its progress.

"And another thing! Where's your stupid Beta? Isn't she usually hanging around you like it's going out of style?"

"JJ's style is to occasionally travel as a lone wolf." The Canadian smirked from over his glasses, far from bothered at the slight. "But oh, you're asking about my availability? Are you going to court me while I'm alone? I'm too much Alpha for you, I think."

"Fucking disgusting!"

Despite his words, Yuri stuck a foot out to delay the elevator moving on.

"Are you getting on or what?" the small blond demanded at last, oblivious as ever as to the implications of his actions.

JJ looked surprised, having clearly expected to be made to take the next car. His phone fell to the side as his arm swung there but he didn't ponder the matter for long, only shrugging.

"Would you excuse me?" JJ said, for whatever reason saying it directly to Katsudon without moving to enter the elevator.

What Yuri couldn't have known was that a question of etiquette had appeared. The elevator was small—certainly small enough to set the Canadian Alpha at an inappropriately close distance to an unfamiliar Omega. But were they familiar enough with one another? Well, that was to Yuuri's discretion, though he seemed unconcerned with the matter, smiling sweetly and telling JJ that he didn't mind his company at all.

As the elevator door slid shut, Yuri saw Victor's left hand twitch.

"Great! Oh Yuuri—you're dropping things."

"Huh?" Yuri stopped tracing the other Alphas' movements, looking down at JJ's statement. Indeed, both Katsudon's skater registration identification as well as the event schedule had fallen out of his pocket. "Oh, thank you for saying something."

As Katsudon knelt to collect each item, Yuri found himself with a brand new problem. In any other case, he would have helped Katsudon collect his things without hesitation… and yet something was telling him he couldn't do that right now. There was no specific reason—just that his Alpha instincts balked at the concept of showing the crown of his head to another Alpha; like it would mean submitting to JJ's status. The feeling was unfamiliar and confusing, but Yuri hesitated long enough that Katsudon had pretty much finished up before anything could be done anyway.

"I'm disappointed that I won't be skating against you," Yuri heard JJ complain as the two older Alphas stared at Katsudon on the ground. Yuri, still looking at Victor, knew instantly what that pervert's thoughts were at the moment.

 _He looks lovely on his knees_.

Yuri nearly gagged. _Fucking hell._

"Are you going to perform on your own at all soon?" JJ asked unexpectedly of the Omega; "you're a wonderful single skater."

Later on, during the most embarrassing etiquette talk ever, Victor would explain to him that, in Russian Dynamics, the question of future decisions should have been directed to the Omega's Alpha. Referencing this instance, Katsudon, who Yuri found knew just about everything regarding Dynamic etiquette, had not looked startled by that, leading Victor to speculate this was another specific North American rule. Victor would later admit he hadn't thought of that at the time, and acted perhaps not well.

"I hope you don't make a bad showing today, JJ," said Victor in a way that seemed as much an insult as encouragement, making Yuri gape in admiration at the unexpected rudeness. There was a small _ding_ as they descended yet another floor. "Don't waste my time watching you."

JJ's eyes narrowed. "I never waste time on the ice."

 _Ding_.

While the ball was rolling, Yuri figured he'd get in one last quality insult before he was required to act like an adult for the day. "Are you going to go hide in a corner now as usual? Far away from any Alphas?"

Was it blunt of him? Of course it was. Still, in his own words from many times before, JJ was not considered unavailable until he and his Beta were officially married and Yuri found it frustrating to have him sniffing around his dam—particularly just when Victor's claim on him was fucking up.

JJ looked abruptly up from surveying the illuminated floor buttons at the question. "Sorry?" he asked, perplexed.

"For what other reason would you always rather spend time with Omegas and Betas? Are you too insecure as an Alpha to be around other Alphas?"

"Yurio," said Victor sharply.

Startled, Yuri subsided. Had he.. crossed a line? But Victor gave JJ shit all the time!

Suddenly, the feel of the room was different; uncomfortable. Victor and Katsudon were both staring at him in a way that was reprimanding and… _ugh_ … disappointed; worse than that, Yuri sort of felt like he _cared_.

"My reason for not being around other Alphas—"

 _Ding_.

"—is because I'm never invited," JJ shrugged.

The door had opened before Yuri had truly grasped what had been said. By the time he opened his mouth to say… well, _anything_ really, the other Alpha had already gone.

Suddenly, not inviting JJ last night wasn't very funny.

It wasn't funny at all.


	8. A Fan of Katsuki Yuuri!

**Unintentionally Yours**

 _articas_ursula (AO3)_

 _artica's-ursula (FFN)_

 _Beta: TheDisreputableDog_

* * *

Chapter 8: A Fan of Katsuki Yuuri!

* * *

It had to be at least 40 C in his positively sweltering apartment on the outskirts of Amsterdam, and _oh_ how Finnian Reinhardt loved to loathe it.

" _What do you mean 'I can't go'!? You'd have sold your soul to get tickets for the Swiss Invitational four months ago and now five days out it's 'I can't go'!? Think of how much trouble I went through for this!"_

Honestly, Finnian wasn't thinking very much beyond how he'd like to turn the thermostat down. His bedroom windows were so thickly fogged up that he couldn't even see the snow drift piling up outside. Not to mention he couldn't walk across the room without half-tripping over opened water bottles, boxes of nonperishable food, and piles of blankets purposefully strewn about the floor as he triple-checked that everything he'd need for the next three days was on the correct side of his double-deadbolted bedroom door.

" _It's seeing Yuuri Katsuki_ live _that we're talking about here!"_

Finnian fumbled for a grip on the last of his rationality as the sound of his dream Omega's name threatened to send him teetering into his much-anticipated rut.

The excessive warmth was making him dizzy, which hardly helped his ability to maneuver through the mess. It was frustrating; he was _frustrated_ not having a mate to admire his well-protected territory or be impressed with his gifts of nesting materials drenched in his scent. Finnian was nearly to the point of heat stroke from abiding by his instincts to warm the room; a submissive Dynamic considering sharing an Alpha's rut would take sharp offense to anything less than what seemed like the temperature of a broiling oven. This heat complimented their own rising temperature; ideal conditions for becoming pregnant.

Such were the preparations of an unmated Alpha going into rut.

"Sem! I'm trying to focus here!"

" _What, just his name will send you into rut? How long do you have?"_

Finnian considered his internal clock, which all Alphas' instincts kept time with. "Two minutes before I turn into an idiot and my Alpha mind doesn't understand how to open cans."

" _Great! Let's finish this conversation when we're driving to the airport on Friday."_

"You're insane! 'Thirty-six hours off a rut before international travel.' That's the law and I'm not getting arrested for your amusement!"

" _Take a fucking chance, would you!? You'll be… eight hours off it. Take a sleeping pill before we reach the airport. No one will be able to tell. Fuck the system!"_

Finnian, who was of the opinion that a Beta could not truly understand the consequences of gallivanting off just after a rut, just gave an irritated sigh while attempting to turn the heat dial still warmer and finding that not to be possible. An Alpha's fuse was never shorter than those few tripwire moments before one lost oneself in the haze of instinct.

He hung up without warning, unable to stop himself from rolling his neck and releasing a pulse of strong Alpha pheromones.

An Alpha's internal clock was never wrong, and so, knowing it was time, Finnian took a deep breath and knelt carefully to pull an unassuming box from beneath his bed with his address labeled neatly on the front and a generic courier service on the back. He'd stashed it away a month and a half ago, worried that to open it would render the contents imperfect—and it wasn't like these were cheap.

He cut the cardboard open awkward, having never indulged himself in this specific way for a rut, despite having had them for three days every three months for the past twelve years. It seemed like his fears of disturbing the freshness of the package were unfounded, because nothing in the air changed as he reached in and gingerly pulled out a tiny bottle.

 _Omega 14_ was etched into the glass.

Beneath the expensive item lay a small introductory note.

 _Our synthetic Omega pheromones improve your comfort during ruts by fooling your Alpha mind into believing that your rut is being shared with an Omega, reducing post-rut feelings of frustration, agitation, and depression._

 _For your safety, this product is for Alpha use only. For the appropriate Beta dose, please contact our company,_ _ABO Tokyo Pharmaceuticals_ _._

His Alpha mind was slowly edging him out of his own head, but he couldn't bring himself to mind at this point. It was easier to go with it now.

Twisting the lid, he broke the thick plastic seal.

In three days' time, when Finnian finally snapped out of his rut, all he would recall about the synthetic Omega pheromones he'd bought was that they had been instant and heartstoppingly good.

And yes, Finnian would definitely agree that it was the most accurate formulation of Yuuri Katsuki's scent on the market.

Just as advertised.

Come Friday, despite his misgivings, Finnian did indeed find himself in Sem's company at Geneva International Airport, trapped in a small crowd of spectators looking on at some man greeting his son with enough enthusiasm to kill.

"What a cute scene," Sem simpered, leaning against his luggage.

Finnian felt dubious of this claim, but also found himself not particularly interested in the goings-on around him, still marveling at the sharp difference his gift to himself had made.

Those Omega pheromones had been _amazing_. Finnian couldn't believe he'd ended a rut only just over eight hours ago. Post-ruts were notoriously awful for unmated Alphas—by now, he was usually alternating between tearing his apartment apart and nursing his wounded Alpha ego, depressed and irritable.

He felt nothing like that now. Actually, he was feeling a bit cocky.

"Let me go you fucking trash lord!"

"That's a rude child," Finnian heard Sem sniff, pulling him out of his calculations.

 _I can afford to order two bottles—one for my April rut and an extra for any accidents—if I don't vacation out of the country this year. Maybe I can just—_

Without immediately knowing why, Finnian paused.

 _Wait a minute._

Finnian couldn't say he followed competitive ice-skating to the letter—honestly he only really watched the sport to watch Yuuri Katsuki—but he had gone through the lineup of skaters on the flight over and listened to a few interviews to ensure he didn't look completely clueless. The young blond-haired Alpha named Yuri Plisetsky was sort of iconic for his poor temperament and preference for cat-themed clothing. Squinting over at the pair everyone was staring at, this guy sort of looked like he fit the form...

Finnian stared still harder at the blond, and then at the silver-haired man nearly strangling him. Was that…?

Victor Nikiforov.

 _So, wait—_

"Victor, you're embarrassing him."

Holy shit, it _was_!

Without thinking, Finnian touched his wheat-colored hair as though to flatten it from where it had become disheveled during their one and a half hour flight. Suddenly, he became very aware of how sweaty his palms had become and the rough stubble on his chin that he hadn't had time to shave off before being frog-marched to the airline terminal by his companion.

Catching himself preparing to do something stupid—like _posture_ —Finnian reined in his Alpha urges with an iron grip. It was much more difficult at the moment; his rut hadn't even ended twenty-four hours ago and, in hindsight, maybe his mindset wasn't so great for traveling, but hey.

Finnian just couldn't help it.

He snapped a quick picture.

"What's with that?" his friend asked curiously, craning his neck to look at the photo. "It's funny, but taking a picture of it is kind of weird."

"Well, that's actually… Yuuri-Katsuki-over-there." Finnian said this very fast and immediately followed this up with gripping Sem's wrist and frog-marching him away before the Beta could fatally embarrass him. "Let's go then!"

Sem allowed himself to be tugged along but didn't stop himself from twisting his body to squint at the Omega a dozen or so meters away. "That's him?"

"I just said that, yes."

"I'm not going to scream." Sem rolled his eyes. "You can stop pulling me."

Suspicious and without any proof that his friend wasn't actually that crazy, Finnian let him go as they exited the doors leading out of the airport. They joined the queue for the local shuttles and, setting his luggage down, Finnian finally took the time to really look at the photo he'd taken.

It was… _wow_.

"Wow," Sem echoed, reaching out to move Finnian's elbow so he could see too. "He's really pretty."

Opening his sparsely populated Instagram account, Finnian began attempting to find the best filter for this occasion. He could barely think of that though when the original image looked so perfect.

In the end, he applied something soft and light, like Katsuki himself, and moved on to the caption.

 _Just saw katsuki-yuuri at Geneva International_ , Finnian typed quickly. _And he doesn't have a claim mark anymore?_

"Oh add something more to it," Sem insisted, prying the phone from his resisting friend. "Aha, how about some tags? I know some for you—" He began to type. " _#Omega #GorgeousOmega #WouldMarry #DreamsComeTrue #YuuriKatsuki #SwissInvitational2017."_

"You are a terrible friend," Finnian complained, allowing it but already thinking of deleting the embarrassing tags the moment his coworker's back was turned. It hardly mattered to keep them there—he only had a handful of followers anyway.

It wasn't like anyone would really notice it.

The next morning, Saturday, proved that to be laughably untrue.

"It's _fine_ , Finnian," Sem sighed in exasperation as the Alpha nervously chewed his nail while eyeing the thousands of likes and thousand more comments continuously populating the photo he'd posted. "It's a nice picture. It's not like he's naked."

"I should have taken those tags off. They're really embarrassing."

"Does it matter now though?"

Finnian didn't answer, instead sighing and locking his phone again. The two of them were camped out in their stadium seats awaiting the start of the brief opening ceremonies for the competition. He had been wavering between taking off at least the more sappy tags and leaving the whole thing alone since he'd woken up that morning to find that the photo had gone viral.

On top of that, his Alpha instincts were getting super irritated from not being in his own territory so soon after coming off his rut.

"Hey friend, if you wanted to buy water, you should do it soon. They're going to start shortly I think." Sem waved a one-euro coin under his nose, snapping him back to attention. "Can you get me a drink? Rivella, if they have it."

Blinking once to clear his thoughts, Finnian accepted the money in a sort of daze. "Um, yes. Okay. I'll be back."

Weaving his way past the rest of the people who had already sat down, Finnian glanced around for some kind of cue for where the snack bar might be. His French—which everything was written in—was spotty at best, so in the end he decided to just pick a way and hope for the best.

A few minutes of walking later, the Alpha was starting to feel pretty sure that he wasn't really supposed to be back here. There was a security guard that he'd passed who was speaking heatedly with someone demanding entry and Finnian had slipped through unnoticed in their arguing.

He was next to a much smaller section of seating now; each chair had a name taped to it with _RÉSERVER_ labeled neatly beneath. There were only a handful of people around the walkway and in the seats and, just when he was entertaining the thought that he'd become an invisible ninja for sure, something gave him pause.

 _What's that…?_

As discretely as possible, Finnian looked around for the source of a very attractive scent that had made his Alpha instincts instantly sharp as knives. He thought at first it was coming from a female Omega seated on her own close by with scarlet hair and ink eyes, but his Alpha mind dismissed her offhand; he'd always bred males and his instincts wouldn't bother with anything else.

Movement from a little ways away gave those instincts something to focus on.

It was coming from the male Omega that had just rounded a corner and was walking towards him.

 _Yuuri Katsuki._

Finnian hadn't planned it—my god, how could he have? He was no more foolish than anyone else and knew that his lifelong dream Omega was thoroughly claimed by Victor Nikiforov no matter what the lack of mating mark might imply. No one would be stupid enough to let Katsuki go if they could help it. Even if Finnian personal thought that such a proper Omega should hardly be possessed by an Alpha so airheaded as the Russian skater, he respected that; he respected Yuuri Katsuki.

But his Alpha mind, still somewhat high on residual rutting hormones circulating through his blood, was not so reasonable.

Tossing his head, his hair moved from his eyes to stare all the better down at Katsuki. His body pushed out a mild supply of pheromones—just enough to attract the Omega's notice without being rude.

Katsuki's attention shifted immediately from his ponderings to Finnian's location, stopping in place. Without hesitating, his neck fell submissively to reveal the left side of his lovely neck; his pretty cherrywood eyes looking away.

Finnian was sure he could die right now and be just fine with that.

His Alpha mind seemed intent on calling his bluff.

"Yuuri Katsuki?"

Finnian's heart felt jumpy as the pretty Omega looked up at him through thick lashes and dark locks. Katsuki was about a head shorter than Finnian; it was _delicious_. His eyes were sparkly like a doll's and he privately thought the magazine photo clippings he possessed of this Omega in no way did his shiny pink lips justice.

And then came the stray thought:

 _Yuuri Katsuki is submitting to me._

Finnian never even had a prayer.

"I don't want to offend you," the Alpha prefaced their entire encounter, beginning the swift process of fucking everything up. He wasn't actually sure if he was far enough away from Katsuki at this point; Europeans didn't practice distance etiquette like most everywhere else did.

"You haven't offended me yet," said Katsuki politely though he followed the Alpha's movements closely. Finnian could see why: usually beginning a conversation with something like "no offense" inevitably led to something offensive occurring before too long. As much as he tried to avoid it, his eyes were locked on to Katsuki's left neck.

 _No mark_ , his Alpha mind assured him.

The tension rose.

They were hardly on their own in this part of the stadium. Finnian had initiated things directly next to the sparsely populated separate stands where he was starting to realize the families and coaches of skaters were permitted seating to watch the events. Still, the only one paying them mind was that female Omega only just so far from them.

She was pretending Katsuki didn't exist, keeping her eyes from straying anywhere near his vicinity. The lack of posturing was extremely strange to Finnian, who had once seen two Omegas moved to such violence that one had needed surgery to reset a viciously crushed finger.

But she had noticed them—how could she not have? Yet having not been verbally addressed, the female Omega seemed to decide to ignore Katsuki and Finnian's presence both, returning to consult her phone. There still looked to be some tension in her slightly bared teeth.

That they weren't acknowledging each other at all was deeply unnerving.

With the only other person around being an Omega, Finnian's Alpha instincts urged him to impress Katsuki; to posture. In all fairness, in any other circumstances he would have been a reasonable person but there was literally poetry out there describing Yuuri's sweet scent—a scent that had very recently seen him through a rut.

Without thinking, the Alpha stepped just that much closer.

And Katsuki honest-to-god _hissed_.

When an Omega hissed at you, that was pretty much signed, sealed, and delivered confirmation that you were a shit person and ridiculously out of line. The reality of the situation seemed to shake Finnian out of whatever headspace his instincts had coaxed him into and he jumped back from Katsuki looking vaguely horrified.

"I—I'm sorry! I never intended to make you uncomfortable. I have no excuse—I'm not some creep, I swear!" He stopped talking all at once, his eyes impossibly wide.

He had messed up; he had messed up badly. He never should have presumed to be above the thirty-six hour travel law! Finnian had never presumed himself above anything in his _life_. He was just some nobody architect. What a time to acquire an ego!

He could blame his friend, he could blame his rut—but really, the one who deserved the blame was Finnian and Finnian alone.

 _How will I explain to Sem that I have a restraining order against me?_

"I accept your apology."

Finnian blinked.

Twice.

"What?" he blurted out, remembering at the last second to speak in English as his surprise threatened to steer him back into Dutch.

"You haven't done anything that can't be taken back," Yuuri promised. "It was a misunderstanding."

 _God, you're not making it any easier to fall out of love with you, Katsuki._

Unconsciously, Finnian's clenched hand came to press tightly against his chest, just over his rapidly fluttering heart. He cheeks felt warm, but not nearly as warm as his soul.

"I'm sorry, but I do have to finish things up. Will you excuse me please?"

Finnian jumped out of the way, nodding dumbly as the sweet Omega dipped his head politely and passed.

 _Did that really just happen?_

"Ah—Katsuki?"

The Omega turned around. "Yes?"

Scratching the back of his neck, the Dutchman felt awkward for asking, but nevertheless held up his phone. "May I… um… take a photo with you?"

Katsuki smiled.

In the end, feeling vaguely traumatized despite the positive outcome, Finnian slipped back into his seat next to his coworker just as the ceremonies began.

"The Rivella?" Sem whispered.

"They're out."

"The water?"

"They're out," Finnian lied again, pressing the coin back into the Beta's hand and slouching in his seat as the divisions were announced.

"But what the fuck?" Sem complained in the background as Finnian began to tune him out in favor of surreptitiously viewing the selfie he'd taken with Katsuki.

 _Spectaculaire_! he captioned the picture before sticking it on his social media.

His warmhearted crush on Yuuri Katsuki certainly hadn't faded at all, though what with his recent awkward moment, Finnian would likely be finding someone else to fantasize about until the discomfort of this memory had passed.

That wasn't going to stop him from reordering the synthetic Omega pheromones replicating Katsuki's scent for his next rut, though.

"Do you want to get a photo with Katsuki afterwards?" Sem asked, skimming through the program without noticing anything amiss as Finnian put away his phone. "You can have your chance to seduce him."

Letting out a long breath with his back against the chair, he wanted to laugh as much as he wanted to cry. "Cheers, friend, but I'm going to try to do without for today."

Every young Alpha's starter crush…

He could certainly see why Yuuri Katsuki would be it.

* * *

"Can't you do this later, old man?"

Yuri eyed the room's only exit warily as Victor shut and locked it.

"I was going to until you acted so badly." The older Alpha that Yuri had honestly always hoped to be like frowned at him, a hand braced against his hip. Yuri stared at the red piping of Victor's Team Russia jacket in order to avoid having to meet his reproachful aqua eyes. "Why did you say those things to JJ?"

"You say things like that to JJ all the time, hypocrite!"

"I say things to JJ that are within the scope of our relationship," Victor corrected firmly. The serious tone in his voice made Yuri feel completely dressed down. "But while I have apologizing of my own to do, the fact remains that you hurt his feelings just now."

Yuri's eyes flicked up to search Victor' face. "What? _You're_ going to apologize?"

He frowned. "If you aren't ready to say when you're wrong, you're not going to have friends for long, Yurio."

 _Friends?_ He barely had those.

The young Alpha immediately looked away. He struggled to say it, but eventually, red-faced, he managed to admit: "I didn't… mean to."

"I know you didn't," Victor agreed easily; "and now I want to know what you _did_ mean."

"He's always hanging around Katsudon," Yuri complained to him. "I wanted to know why."

"My Yuuri is an Omega; JJ likes to be around Omegas more than any other Dynamic."

"And there's no one else to bother!?"

"Not really." Victor shrugged.

"Why aren't there more Omegas?"

Victor eyed him. "Wow, you don't pay attention in school do you?"

"Are you trying to piss me off or are you going to fucking answer the question!?"

Victor seemed to consider that, and then began to grin out of nowhere before starting to say: "I think it hasn't escaped your notice that breeding males cannot give birth naturally."

Yuri shrieked at the unexpected statement, his face turning bright red immediately as he leapt from his seat. His palms cupped his ears as though to ward off any additional mortifying information coming from Victor's mouth. "Oh my god, old man! What the _hell_!? Did you really just tell me that!?"

"Please be serious, Yurio." Ditching the grin, Victor frowned at Yuri's protests. "I'm doing my duty to you right now."

The strange wording was startling to Yuri, but he subsided.

"The reason why there are so few Omegas… It used to be that the delivery process for a male was quite harsh. There would be an incision with whatever was on hand—kitchen knives, hunting knives—"

"Incision?" Yuri interrupted, jerking his eyes up and looking faintly green.

"A deep cut," Victor clarified as though Yuri was stupid or something. "There were so many infections from it all. Omega males were cut regularly because of how easily they become pregnant; with Beta males, it was and is much more difficult for an Alpha to sire children for them."

"They… they died from infections?"

"The males did, yes. Omega genes are in an Omega's blood, regardless of the gender. The Omega genes died with a lot of the males, leaving not many left to pass the Dynamic on. Female Omegas obviously don't have that problem, but an Omega dam doesn't guarantee an Omega pup." It sounded like Victor had been thinking about this a lot. In the end, Victor shrugged, falsely casual. "Their numbers just keep going down. They've always been sort of fragile; it appeals strongly to an Alpha's protective instincts."

"That won't happen now though, right? That wouldn't happen to him. He wouldn't die." It sounded almost like an order.

Looking deeply disturbed by the idea, the older Alpha shook his head as though to rid it of difficult thoughts. "Don't think like that, Yurio. Things are so much safer now."

"That's not guaranteeing anything! You'll kill him if you breed him for real!"

" _Yurio_ ," Victor scolded. He looked as though he would say more but an intercom within the room gave the stadium-wide announcement that the opening ceremonies would take place in ten minute's time on the main ice arena.

Yuri, who could care less about the announcement, spoke loudly over the voice: "If you like him at all you'll control yourself!"

"Don't suppose you can tell me what to do with my mate," Victor replied evenly.

"He could die! You just finished telling me that!"

"One day, I'm going to get him pregnant."

Yuri slammed his closed fist against the small collection of lockers, pissed beyond words. "You're such a selfish bastard all the time!"

"You're scared." Victor crossed his arms over his chest. "I'm alright with that because I'm scared too. But when you're older, you'll understand that some instincts just can't be fought."

A light knock made both Alphas turn immediately towards the sound.

"Yurio? Victor? Can I come in?"

The soft voice on the other side of the door was Katsudon's.

"We'll finish this up later," Victor told him warningly. Then, hardly missing a beat, Victor's expression turned bright as he reached over and yanked the dressing room door wide open.

"Yuuri!" Victor cheered obnoxiously. "Did you find out our placement order?"

"Never mind that!" Yuri shouted back, waving his arms wildly as Victor ignored him. He really didn't want Katsudon to figure out that anything was the matter. "What if I had still been changing and you opened the door like that!?"

"Do you want him to leave and come back?"

"No!" Yuri nearly yelled at Victor's suggestion. "I mean—" he cleared his throat. "It's so late anyway."

Stepping over the threshold, Katsudon smiled pleasantly at him despite the accusations and scowl put his way. "Hi Yurio."

Yuri immediately straightened up; if he'd been a cat, he would have begun to purr.

"H-hi."

"Hi, Yuuri!" he heard Victor coo disgustingly behind him, as though mocking his nervousness.

Scowling at the thought, Yuri jerked a thumb behind him. "Make him go. His talking is giving me a headache."

"I'll give Yakov your love!" said Victor cheerfully to Yuri, clapping his hands together as though the conversation they'd just had wasn't completely depressing. "Let's meet at the coach and family viewing, okay?"

"We'll be there soon," Katsudon promised. Yuri blew at his messy hair in the background. "I'll just put his hair up."

Yuri froze as the two both turned to stare at his head.

He scowled. "What?"

Victor tapped his chin, pretending to be thoughtful. "You know, if it's too messy, you could always shave his head and let him start over."

"Go play in traffic, jerk!"

Victor did end up leaving, winking annoyingly at Yuri and kissing his Omega with an unnecessary amount of thirst. Ordinarily something like that would set Yuri off and he would demand to know how Katsudon could possibly stand being around someone that stupid. Now, however, Yuri was far more distracted by everything that had already been said. So he sulked in silence, watching through the large mirror in front of him, as his dam sifted through his things on the vanity top to find the supplies he'd need to salvage Yuri's ruffled hair.

Katsudon set the brush down and began to gently gather up Yuri's silky hair in order to lace his locks into one smooth plait. Yuri watched his dam pause to shove his glasses further up the bridge of his nose. The Omega's eyes looked as bright and sweet as a doll's.

"You're never going to get pregnant, right?"

Katsudon nearly dropped the brush he'd been using, startled.

"W-What!?"

Slouched awkwardly in his chair as the Omega stood over him, Yuri refused to meet his eye.

"Look, are you or aren't you? It's just a question!"

Still, Katsudon gaped at him.

"I—what brought this on?"

"Just… promise you're not going to do that."

Katsudon didn't answer for a long moment, but set down the brush. "Are you going to tell me what this is about?"

Yuri crossed his arms defiantly over his chest, his cheeks flushed.

"So that's a 'no', right? Did Victor say something to you?"

"Why would you _want_ to?" Yuri demanded instead.

Katsudon's cheeks turned pink. He looked embarrassed for whatever reason. "I—I'm not sure if… Yurio, do you want to hear this really?"

 _Will you love it more than me?_

Instead of asking that, which would have made him look pathetic, he spoke impulsively right to the Omega's face: "I hope you never get pregnant."

Katsudon, shocked and visibly hurt, recoiled away from the words. " _Yurio_!"

To be fair, Yuri felt about as scandalized by his own statement. "I—" He waved his arms around as though to snatched his words back out of the air. "I didn't mean to say anything like that!"

"Then start thinking before you talk!" Katsudon told him severely, turning away and clearly upset.

Slouching back into his seat, Yuri hugged himself while staring at his dam's back. He'd really, genuinely meant it in a way to show that he gave a fuck whether or not the Omega stayed alive. Still, he could tell immediately that his intentions hadn't done enough to smooth over what even Yuri could tell was not a kind thing to say.

 _Still_ , he defended himself. _Why would anyone want a loud little crybaby? Especially if Katsudon might have to die to have it!? It doesn't make any sense!_

Things didn't get any better from there.

His braid hadn't been pinned, and so the end had come slightly apart. Yuri was too stubborn to break the silence and ask to have it fixed, so he clumsily placed two white pins to tuck the tail-end away.

Katsudon wasn't even paying him any mind at this point. He'd moved across the room to fuss over the cloth garment bag containing Yuri's skate outfit. Yuri watched him carefully ease the silvery fabric out, pausing to gently detach a stray sequin from snapping off from where it'd snagged on the zipper.

As he did this, his left hand rested unthinkingly over his stomach.

He looked distressed.

 _Does he really hate me now?_

Yuri couldn't be sure. He wasn't even really sure how to ask Katsudon something like that; he didn't really want to let on that he _cared_. Yuri was no stranger to pissing people off, but it was usually on purpose and the only person he was comfortable demanding people-advice from was the one now busying himself steaming the wrinkles from Yuri's skate costume with a gentle pressing iron.

There was only one reasonable thing left to do.

Yuri googled it.

 _What do I do if my dam is angry with me?_ he wanted to know.

Apparently, the answer was not so simple. New to being concerned about someone else's feelings, Yuri was nonplussed by the variety of factors one needed to consider when addressing the matter.

The first forum to populate in the search was on a well-known Russian educational website for young Dynamics that Yuri knew from one of his rare appearances at school: _ABO Me_.

The first few topics were, like most of the Internet, filled with people pissed off at each other for no reason. Ordinarily, those were Yuri's favorite type of people—but he scrolled past that in search of something more constructive.

 _Is it your Beta dam?_ You should bring them food and wait to be addressed first.

 _Did you piss off your sire and now your dam is feeling that anger second-hand through their mating bond?_ Bow your head to your sire with the crown of your head lower than their eyes in silence until they say something.

 _You've offended your Omega dam?_

 _Drink a liter of vodka and lay in the forest to await death,_ one poster wrote; _because your Alpha sire is going to kill you._

Peeved, Yuri scrolled past that comment and onto the next.

 _I did that once on holiday to my parents' last month. Physically couldn't make myself leave the country again till she forgave me. Blubbered like a loon when she did. I'm a forty-year-old Gunnery Sergeant Alpha in the Marines. :D_

 _Shit, but they're all like that!_ Yuri couldn't believe it. Not only were the majority of commenters trying to out-do one another with stories on the consequences of upsetting their Omega dam, but there was barely any real advice to read.

Finally, several dozen comments down, Yuri found what he was looking for.

 _You must apologize in person,_ wrote the poster. Their online avatar was the little Beta emoji with a shield that people liked to send on their text messages. _Be open with your emotions and be honest. If you don't say what the problem is, things will only become worse. Omegas carry harsh grudges._

Okay, this person might have had the right idea but Yuri was still pretty sure it wasn't fair of them to say stereotypical things like that about Omegas.

In the end, he couldn't resist.

Logging on with the account he'd reluctantly made in health science class for a passing participation grade the year before, Yuri posted a reply to the Beta's comment.

 _My dam's a male Omega with a male Alpha_ —his chest puffed boastfully as he typed it out— _and he's way too classy to be petty. Maybe the Omegas you're around just don't fucking like you._

"Your short skate is fifth, right?"

Yuri jumped about a foot in the air, dropping his phone carelessly to the floor upon realizing that Katsudon had unlocked the door and was reaching for the handle to leave.

"WAIT!"

Also jumping, the Omega stared at him in surprise at the reaction. Well at least he'd stopped trying to go, but Yuri had no idea what to say now.

They continued to stare at each other.

"Are you alright?" Katsudon asked hesitantly.

As bad as it was letting his dam leave knowing that he'd offended him, Yuri wasn't sure that having the Omega stare at him like he was a disappointment was so much better. Maybe that Beta online was an asshole, but he was probably right about some things. Still, even thinking it before, Yuri had no way of knowing how difficult it would feel to his Alpha pride to talk about his _feelings_.

So he gritted his teeth tightly and just… spat it out.

"I didn't mean… _that_." Yuri hesitated, bowing his upper body awkwardly until the place where Katsudon had put the familial mark was below his eye level. It was the only constructive information out of that online search, so he may as well use it. "I'm sorry."

If Katsudon had expectations on what he would say, that clearly wasn't it. His lips parted unhappily and his fine eyebrows had furrowed just enough to indicate his displeasure.

"Has Victor still not talked to you about these things?"

"No!" Yuri denied hastily. Even if he and Victor didn't always see eye to eye, he didn't deserve to have Yuri lie about him to his Omega. "He did. I'm just trying hard still."

Katsudon didn't say anything, but the disheartened silence that followed as he gestured for Yuri to head towards the door was somehow infinitely worse. It continued as they walked towards the edge of the ice rink where the opening ceremony was unfolding and lasted as they concluded and the men's single skate was announced.

Yuri was so preoccupied with what Katsudon might be thinking of him that he nearly missed the person sitting down nearby until he'd been unconsciously staring for a short while already.

He was walking over before he'd really picked out what he was going to say, but when the dark-haired skater was officially in earshot, there was nothing else Yuri could do except clear his throat more firmly than he felt.

"I've decided I'm going to cheer for you."

JJ paused in tying his skates, looking over his bent knee at the small blond with amusement. "Are you? I thought that was something that might kill you."

"Whatever! Don't disappoint me. Because—" Yuri paused awkwardly. "Because you are a... pretty alright skater." He visibly steeled himself; if he was going to complement this… _individual_ , he'd do it all the way. "No! You're also a great skater and I'll punch your face in if you don't do your best against me!"

Letting go of his laces altogether, JJ pretended to consider the clumsy complement. "Hm. I... accept your apology!" JJ grinned as Yuri descended into a stammering mess of half hearted denial that he was attempting to reconcile.

"Are you thinking about giving me a good luck charm?"

Yuri scowled. "I—!" And then he stopped himself. With an uneven tone, he managed to bite out a farewell that was nearly intelligible before turning on his heel to storm off, his task complete. Before he'd moved away, something JJ said stopped him.

"Do you still want to know why I don't hang out with Alphas much?"

Yuri paused, both feet on the ground. "It's none of my business," he replied carefully.

"Ah—but you want to know."

Yuri, who was nosey like that, actually _did_ want to know. Still, he wasn't going to be the one to say it; not when he'd gotten so far with being more polite than he ever had been in his life towards another person.

"My parents are both Betas," JJ explained, teasing his left skate guard on. "Everyone in my family is, actually—my sister and brother too. Even being an Alpha myself, being _around_ Alphas is too much a lot of the time; they're sort of confrontational. So that's the reason."

"Tch, you hate being around me the most then, probably."

"What?" JJ blinked. "I don't hate you."

It was Yuri's turn to be surprised. "You don't?"

"No. I understand that that's your personality." JJ shrugged. "Actually, I think you're pretty funny."

 _You're such a jerk!_

 _Can you stop being an asshole for no reason?_

 _Plisetsky, leave the room until you've found a better way to speak to others!_

Yuri conducted a brief review of everything anyone had to say about his personality. No one had ever referred to him as funny before.

He told JJ as much; the Canadian looked surprised.

"Really? Huh."

The announcer's voice began to speak amongst the settling noise levels. Though the words were French, Yuri had been in enough international competitions where he barely knew the name of the language spoken and never mind the meaning behind it to know an introduction when he heard one.

"Well," JJ said, standing. Yuri realized he must have drawn the first slot. "Since you're cheering for me, I guess I'll have to do well, small-Yuri!"

JJ winked and, while it was every bit as obnoxious as it was before, Yuri found that the constant urge to punch him in the face was somewhat muted now.

Unsure of what to say, Yuri just shrugged gracelessly. He watched the taller Alpha walk several meters away to speak with a Beta female that must have been his coach.

 _I thought he was an asshole, but now I'm pretty sure he's just stupid,_ Yuri thought charitably to himself.

"If it matters at all—" Yuri jumped, a rare feeling of being caught unawares sending him spinning about to face his dam suddenly just beside him; "—that made me really proud of you."

Quickly, he answered: "It matters." Yuri paused. "And I _am_ sorry about before."

"Thank you for apologizing." Then, Katsudon tugged at his hand like he was leading a small child. "Come on. Let's watch JJ's skate with Victor, okay? Or do you want to go to the viewing room and watch with Chris and the others?"

Ducking his head, Yuri's cheeks tinted pink. "I… want to stay with you guys."

 _And I'll make you proud today so you'll want to stay with me too_.


	9. Welcome to the Swiss Invitational

**Unintentionally Yours**

 _articas_ursula (AO3)_

 _artica's-ursula (FFN)_

 _Beta reader: TheDisreputableDog_

* * *

Chapter 9: Welcome to the Swiss Invitational

* * *

 _A few years ago_

Against the frozen air, Yakov folded his arms tightly around his chest. The stinging cold made his eyes ache as he blinked the small wind away, waiting for his star student to answer the door.

It had been nearly cataclysmic when Victor's rut arrived the week before the Grand Prix three months ago. Yakov couldn't believe it. All their preparations, all their practicing—and then Victor might have barely be cognizant of his own name for part of it!? Well, that had been three months ago, and now his next rut had, hopefully, just come to a close.

Hissing, Yakov nudged the doorbell with his elbow once more, reluctant to infringe upon the young Alpha's solitude but desperately hoping Victor had come back to himself. While he did possess his own key to the door in front of him, it was entirely possible that Victor's rut was still active—though not likely, considering the lack of threatening vocalization.

Oh, what to do.

"Vitya, open this door!"

Nothing.

"Fine!" He huffed and scowled but mostly, Yakov feared; feared that something bad had happened to young Victor and feared that something bad would happen to himself if the rage of Victor's rut had not yet concluded.

In one swift movement, Yakov inserted the key, took a deep breath, twisted the handle, and pushed.

The door swing in easily enough, until something blocking it made Yakov push a bit harder to create a large enough gap in the door to allow his bulk.

The wave of heat emitting from inside nearly bowled him over, though it was entirely pleasant in comparison to the stinging cold outside.

"Vitya?" Yakov called cautiously, eyeing the wreckage splayed out before him. He saw already that the place had been torn to shreds, which didn't surprise him in the least. Before he could notice any damage in particular, his eyes landed on the limp form of Victor motionless on the couch.

He was breathing, at least.

"Not a fit then, Vitya?"

The young man just sighed tiredly at him from his supine position on the couch, an arm thrown carelessly over his eyes to block the wintery sunlight let in by the shredded drapes.

"Not even close, unfortunately."

"Ah."

The drapes weren't even the worst of it; the room was utterly destroyed. A golden trophy lay lodged halfway in the television screen of the living room while the door to the aerie-a tiny room included in older architecture specifically for Omega nests-was actually ripped from its hinges completely.

It was an unprecedented amount of damage—even for a rut so notoriously challenging as Victor's.

Clearing his throat, Yakov stepped gingerly over the shattered remains of the glass coffee table. "Was it a poor reaction or…?"

"It was awful," Victor replied shortly without moving his arm.

When it became clear that was all he would say, Yakov sighed and withdrew his phone from the inner pocket of his coat. He had begun arranging for a professional cleaning service to sort through Victor's destruction some time ago when he'd begun to feel too old to do it himself. As the phone rang, he reached down to pick up the tiny bottle next to his shoe, holding it far from his face with his nose scrunched in revulsion at the strong Alpha-grade Omega scent.

This was the latest in a long line of failures to find something— _anything_ —to curb the furious apocalypse that was Victor Nikiforov's ruts. Back when Victor had lived with Yakov, his young ward had destroyed chairs, picture frames, countless china, and the first trophy Victor had ever won before Yakov had the sense to start removing non essential items from his room before his rut began. Countless synthetics had been sent by pharmaceutical companies the world over in hopes of earning the impressive distinction of owning the one scent to satisfy the famous Russian Alpha. Still, time after time, nothing came of them. Some had no effect at all, which were blessings in the end because others, like this one apparently, had such poor compatibility with Victor's Alpha senses that they ended up making things infinitely worse.

"I don't want one for my next rut," Victor warned, finally uncovering his face. His eyes were bloodshot and Yakov courteously pretended it was from lack of sleep.

"I know." Yakov paused as the line was picked up.

"Yes, I have a reservation under Nikiforov—the room is ready to be cleaned... Of course, thank you."

Victor continued to stare sightlessly at the ceiling.

"Clean yourself up," Yakov advised gruffly. He dug briefly through the hallways closet and tossed a coat at his student, which landed uselessly on the ground in front of him. "You can't stay here."

It hardly surprised Yakov when Victor barely glanced at him.

This was always the most difficult part, forcing Victor out of his territory after a failed rut. The Alpha impulse urged him to stay and contemplate his own worthlessness and Yakov knew Victor to be prone to such spiraling episodes of depression if left to his own preferences. An Alpha's mind simply couldn't grasp the concept of _choosing_ to spend a rut alone. If one was alone, it stood to primitive reason that one was an unfit mate; incapable of or undesirable for breeding.

"I hate having this argument with you!" Yakov said in a harsher tone than he really felt. In this raw state, Victor only responded to threats. "Put it on and leave with me or I'll drag you out by your ear!"

Victor's gunmetal eyes were unblinking. "We're both too old for you to be making that threat you know."

Yakov blustered ineffectively, but felt a bone-wary dread at the words. He was an elderly man filled with ancient pains and Victor was no longer a child that could be pushed around—even for his own benefit.

"I don't care if I break my back doing it—you're leaving this apartment!"

"What difference does it make?" Victor asked bitterly. "It doesn't matter if I do anything since I'm doing it all alone."

"You know you're always like this after a rut."

"No, I'm like this _always_ now!" Victor gripped at his silver hair. "I don't care at all. I need something to happen. I need to _feel_ _something_."

"These feelings are in your blood," Yakov informed him grimly. "You Alpha blood. But nothing happens just because you whine about it. More than that—I haven't spent sixteen years wiping your snot to be disobeyed now!"

Victor glared, his upper lip curling to show his teeth before pointedly turning on his side, putting his back to Yakov.

The Beta didn't hesitate.

In four long strides, Yakov reached the couch. Upending the open pheromone bottle, Yakov unceremoniously poured the remaining liquid directly on Victor's face.

Gasping and spitting, Victor jumped from the couch where he'd been ignoring Yakov with an indignant yell, scrubbing viciously at his right cheek with the hem of his shirt, which he then tore off in his haste to escape the odor. His nostrils flared, his nose scrunched and he gagged furiously as the incompatible scent concentrate invaded his senses.

Yakov spoke loudly over Victor's undignified struggles. "If you act like a child, I'll treat you like a child! I see you're starting to think you have the upper hand on me? Don't be that sort of Alpha who pushes other dynamics around, Vitya, I'm warning you. It'll be a miserable, lonely life, I promise you that!"

Victor, hunched over on the couch, still shuddering and cringing at the godawful stench that was likely giving him a headache worse than a hangover, stared up utterly nonplussed at Yakov from beneath his fringe. His eyes were wide and for fuck's sake, Yakov couldn't help thinking how hard it always was keeping this fledgling Alpha in line. Victor's personality was already so dominant and showy, straying occasionally into an arrogance that Yakov hated.

And because Yakov cared deeply for him, he would never give ground to Victor. It took a long moment of assertive eye contact, but Yakov knew his young charge like he knew his hand. Sure enough:

"I apologize," said Victor finally; grudgingly. "And…" he grimaced. "I will do as you ask."

Yakov nodded firmly. The man walked pointedly to the door, opened it, and gave Victor a look.

Tangling his hand in his silver hair, Victor just grimaced, slid to his feet, and shuffled outside while pulling the coat he'd been issued over his naked chest. He was obviously trying to convince himself it was under his own choice, but Yakov breathing down his neck with each step really hindered that delusion.

"And walk faster! I'm an old man and I'm outpacing you!"

Scowling, Victor responded with longer strides, stalking silently outside and down the stairs to Yakov's small white compact car while his captor locked up behind them. It was unlocked and Victor slipped into the back seat to avoid an additional scene with Yakov stuffing him in like he was under arrest. When Yakov arrived a few seconds later, opening the door to the driver's seat, he noticed Victor absently rubbing off the thin dusting of curly dog hair on the cushion next to him. It seemed to console Victor that at least he'd see Makkachin, who stayed with Yakov for the duration of his ruts as well as the day before and after.

"Here." Victor looked up as Yakov reached back over his shoulder to hand Victor the phone he'd had to snatch out of the couch cushions as Victor retreated. "Just… find something to distract yourself." The Beta might not fully understand the sort of feelings that Victor was dealing with, but he wasn't heartless-and it was going to be a long drive with the snow piling up.

Starting the engine, they drove the first few blocks in silence.

Until Victor let out a loud, shocked noise while thoughtlessly attempting to jump to his feet, making Yakov slam on the breaks in alarm. The car behind them narrowly avoided a collision by swerving slightly to the road's shoulder.

"WHAT KIND OF CRAZY PERSON ARE YOU TURNING INTO!?" Yakov shouted as the two cars behind him honked their horns in protest. His knuckles were white where they gripped the steering wheel and his heart rate was so high he thought he might finally have the heart attack that seemed inevitable while being Victor's guardian.

"It's Yuuri!" Victor grinned, barely paying attention to the accident he'd nearly caused. Despite their redness, his eyes were bright and his entire demeanor seemed to warm. "It's him! He's skating my routine-he's sending me a message, I know it!"

"MESSAGE!?" The car behind them honked again with feeling. Reluctantly, Yakov began to ease off the break and creep forward on the slick road. He took a slow, calming breath. "What _message_?"

"He's ready for me to court him!"

Victor nearly killed them again when Yakov stopped the car quickly once more. The tires of the car behind them squealed and Yakov could see in his rearview mirror as the driver made an impolite gesture.

"Will you _stop that_!?"

Victor didn't answer but from the reflection on the window, Yakov could see that he was pulling up airline options from Pulkovo Airport, the closest international airport in Saint Petersburg, to a destination called Fukuoka Airport. The preexisting knowledge of which Japanese airport to land in made Yakov suspect Victor had been considering this for some time.

"You can't do this, Vitya!"

"You might not like it, but you can't stop me."

The cars were honking again. Yakov flicked on the hazard lights and, after a few seconds, traffic began to bypass them, slowing so the drivers could crane their necks in hope of catching sight of whatever was causing their holdup.

They sat there in silence for a few seconds. The two men stared carefully at each other via the rearview mirror.

Eventually, Victor added apologetically, "I can't keep being this way. I think you know that."

Yakov's lips tightened into a thin line.

The seconds went by, but soon enough, Yakov spoke.

"Thirty-six hours off a rut before international travel." He turned fully around in his seat to point a finger firmly at Victor, who smiled fondly at him. "Thirty-six, Vitya! Don't get yourself into more trouble! You're troublesome enough as it is!"

Laughing, Victor lunged forward to cling to his sire-figure as best he could, considering the awkward confines of the vehicle.

"Yes! Thank you!"

"STOP THANKING ME! THIS CAR ISN'T IN PARK AND YOU'RE GOING TO GET US KILLED! SIT DOWN!"

* * *

"I've decided we're friends. But don't make it weird!"

It was the first thing JJ heard after stepping out of kiss and cry and into the sparsely populated back corridor. Still, he didn't feel like he understood his own situation any better after several additional seconds of staring.

"You're making it weird!"

"Sorry," JJ grinned, snapping out of gawking to resume running a towel roughly through his hair to sop up the sweat. It gave him a moment to consider the brat in front of him. Yuri's statements were borderline aggressive, but he was essentially well meaning. Roughness like that typically caused JJ to dislike other Alphas, but coming from this spitfire kid... it was nearly charming.

"Ok, we're friends," JJ added when he found the blond looking expectant.

Yuri nodded sharply before turning to saunter away, satisfied with their transaction.

"And you know what? I've worn that face."

It was a risk to address it, but JJ simply couldn't go without saying something after noticing Yuri repeatedly scanning the crowd while attempting to be casual but looking faintly disappointed. He'd heard the rumors about Yurio's parents. An Alpha pair? Those sort of unions were curses and everyone knew it.

Yuri rounded on him immediately, meeting JJ's carefully casual face with his own scowl. "You know, I wasn't inviting you into a conversation! People just can't mind their own business for—what— _five minutes_?!"

"I've seen you look at the stands a lot." JJ shrugged. "And I just think that you're looking for someone."

"Is this how making friends goes?" Yuri demanded next, squinting through the bright lights. Around the corner and a ways away, the dull echo of applause flared for Chris's concluding jump. "People are just going to question me forever?"

"I think," the Canadian pressed on as though he hadn't noticed the complaint, "that whoever you're looking for isn't there and isn't coming."

The discomfort of the silence that followed was not lost on JJ.

"How would you know about anything?" Yuri glowered after a beat, clenching his hands as though putting his fists against JJ would make any difference.

"Maybe I don't."

"That's right! So go play in traffic!" Yuri shouted, his hands gripping themselves till they blanched.

"I'll go," JJ nodded, opting for the less strife-filled path. He even moved to do it, taking a step past Yuri towards the locker room to freshen up. Still, he couldn't leave without addressing the thing that made Yuri look, even if only in that moment, so small.

"The person that you're looking for… Yurio, most people can't or won't see themselves as the villain."

The fiery blond glared icily at a space a few inches to the side of JJ's head, but eventually nodded—if only a fraction.

JJ left him there to think that over.

And Yuri, left alone with these thoughts, couldn't help thinking a little less harshly of his new friend.

* * *

"Yurio! You're nearly late!"

At least the short walk over to the small section of stands reserved for coaches and invited guests of the program's participants was enough to clear his head. By the time Yuri skulked back over to sit with Victor and Yuuri, his mind had wrapped slightly around what JJ had tried to teach him in the short life of their new friendship.

Victor was making an airheaded face at him and Yuuri scooted his glasses further up his nose to observe him better as he sat next to them. Yuri imagined they would change directly after his performance while the women's skate section took place so as not to run the risk of making a mess of their skate costumes before their slot came up. They both looked quite ordinary right now—just the irritating sweet Alpha/Omega pair that enjoyed embarrassing him regularly in public with unwarranted displays of affection and stuffing him with food given half a chance.

Yuri privately preferred them this way. When Victor was trussed up in his skate costume, basking in the admiration of his fans, he settled further into his world-class skater arrogance that rubbed Yuri exactly the wrong way. And thinking about Yuuri a few weeks ago, practicing in their home rink… If those fucking loser ice hockey brutes' reaction to his dam's appearance was any indication, Yuri was not going to like this. He was already sick of seeing people stare when Yuuri walked by. It wasn't like Yuri didn't notice where their eyes lingered. He was aware of the fact that people openly admitted that they didn't care about ice skating but had come today anyway to smell Yuuri Katsuki's legendary scent in person or see how his body moved in tight spandex.

They were saying that about _his dam!_

"It's fraying," Yuuri fretted, leaning into his personal space to pick at Yuri's braid. His delicate scent made Yuri relax, though a snagged hair made him hiss sharply at his dam, but not pull away.

"Sorry, Yurio," said Yuuri sweetly. "You have the—" he said a word that Yuri didn't recognize, followed up with, "—right, Victor?"

"'Hairpins,'" Victor corrected his Russian politely.

"Yes, thank you."

"I think they're in the locker room, actually."

Yuuri fretted further, and Yuri would rather be fucking killed than admit to enjoying being fussed over.

"I—oh!"

While running a hand distractedly through his own hair, the Omega paused. From his soft, dark locks, he pulled out two black hairpins.

"Your hair is so fair, though," Yuuri sighed, using them to pin Yuri's light hair more securely in place. "It looks okay, right Victor? The pins are dark… it's not bad?"

Victor placed his hands on Yuri's shoulders, centering him squarely to run a critical eye over his appearance. Despite himself, the young Alpha straightened up under the scrutiny, puffing his chest. He wanted Victor to like him; to approve of him.

Victor broke his serious expression with a wink. "You'll do," he decided, reaching over to flick at the crown of Yuri's head.

Privately pleased, the small blond opened his mouth to respond that someone old like Victor should break a hip rather than a leg with all the good luck he'd need. Instead of parting for speech, however, his lips opened wider to display Yuri's gum line, from which extended tightly gritted teeth. The fine hairs on the back of Yuri's neck rose sharply.

"Don't start," Yuuri suddenly warned.

Preoccupied with addressing his awkward fledgling Alpha senses and the latest unnerving feeling that his body knew something the rest of him didn't, Yuri nearly didn't catch it.

"Start _what_?"

Victor look entertained. "Aren't you too young to have an enemy?"

"Not since the day you started bothering me!" Yuri scanned his surroundings mindlessly, pausing when Victor's bulk blocked his view.

"Can you _move_ or something!?"

"Hm?" Victor pretended to only just notice Yuri's fuming stance. "Oh, sorry Yurio. Maybe I'm getting old like you're always saying. I didn't hear you."

Irritated with Victor's obvious amusement and active obstruction, Yuri continued to attempt to pinpoint what exactly was wrong. It all came together when a familiar and distinctly unwelcome scent finally registered with his conscious mind rather than just his Alpha one.

"Nikiforov," the dark-haired Alpha greated with a nod as she walked at a leisurely pace nearer. Her offspring, Cao Bin, trailed obediently behind her. "Have I introduced myself? I don't think so."

"Forgive my manners!" Victor replied with a flashy smile, turning fully to face her as though their charges weren't in the process of attempting to decimate one another with eye contact alone. "I should have identified myself."

"Not at all."

Yuri mimed gagging at the overly polite conversation but quickly rescinded the expression as he noticed Cao Bin rolling his eyes.

 _Tch, what a kid,_ Yuri thought condescendingly.

"Victor Nikiforov."

"Lei-Mei Bin."

Each Alpha, using their right hand to signified they were bonded, grasped the other's forearm in a firm shake.

"They're too similar to each other," she remarked, discussing both Yuri and Cao.

Both young Alphas produced expressions of similar horror.

Victor laughed airily. "It's that handsome expression they're doing right now! Hey, you may already know of my Omega, Yuuri Katsuki?"

"A pleasure." She nodded courteously to Yuuri, who, upon address, at last made eye contact and greeted her politely. She had to have been familiar with Yuuri's international Omega icon status but dared not mention it in her own mate's presence. An Omega's ego was a volatile thing. "If I may? My Omega, Clara Bin."

When called upon, the redhead Omega stood neatly. It was clear that she and Yuuri still didn't like each other. They had both been doing a splendid job of pretending the other didn't exist, considering they were only a few feet apart. Now that they had both been directly addressed, however, they were no longer plausibly able to ignore one another.

"So I see who your son gets his manners from," said Yuuri so very pleasantly right away and holy shit Yuri could _feel_ his eyes attempt to pop out of his skull, wide as they were.

"Well I hope you'll teach your pup some, when you have one." It was the first time Yuri had heard her speak and when she did so it was with a fine German accent.

The tension that settled was the sort of thing that preceded lightning.

Yuri looked quickly to Victor, wondering how he'd react. Yuri had been reprimanded immediately and harshly when he'd spoken to JJ in such a way after all. Now, however, Victor surprised him by looking as though he'd expected this and possibly more. Actually, Victor and Lei-Mei Bin both seemed to hold their breath as the two Omegas looked to be plotting one another's death and dismemberment. That was weird, Yuri thought, considering any time Yuuri looked to be in even the most vaguely dangerous situation, Victor would intervene to defend him.

Several days from this point, during a landmark discussion on the topic like Yuri was stupid enough to do something like that in the first place, Victor would warn him: "Don't ever put yourself between two Omegas in a fight. They have a very low tolerance for one another and sometimes act on it."

Once, back when Yuri attended on-campus classes rather than the satellite learning he did now, there had been two Omegas enrolled in his secondary school. One attending was rare enough; two, unlikely; both of them in the same year, however, was borderline conspiracy.

Yuri had been pretty sure that the school normally kept the two Omegas' lunch hours opposite on purpose, but that day it had rained heavily, causing the gym class to retreat indoors where some of the lunch hour students were playing indoor basketball. Yuri hadn't been present at the time but he'd heard the fight that ensued had resulted in one fractured arm and one black eye with a bloody corneal laceration.

All because one had gotten a step too close for the other's taste.

The school probably hadn't allowed them to so much as lay eyes on one another after that.

Presently, both Omegas stood with their primary leg straight and crossed their other leg at the knee. Yuuri, who was bonded to a male, crossed over his left leg while the woman, Clara, who was bonded to a female, crossed over her right. Having already had their posturing completed the previous day, Clara signaled acceptance of her defeat in grace and did not come any closer to Yuuri.

An interjection in the form of the overhead intercom briefly interrupted the interactions, calling Cao to the ice for his performance time slot.

"With that over with..." muttered Lei-Mei as the two Omegas went back to refusing to acknowledge each other. Clara began to fuss over her surly offspring while Yuuri subtly dismissed her by turning away.

"You know how these things go," said Victor, crossing his lightly muscled arms and shrugging.

Yuri ignored the useless ramblings in favor of looking down his nose at Cao-a difficult endeavor, considering they were the same height.

"I'm going to win no matter what you do out there!"

Cao sneered at him. "You'll have to do better than you ever have then because I'll be the only thing anyone's talking about today!"

"Yeah, when you fall over!" Yurio advanced on the other young Alpha. "Don't worry, you still might place."

"You won't even make the podium!"

They were nearly nose to nose when a staff member waved Cao down from the entrance to the ice, indicating that he should proceed. With a final flash of his teeth, the dark-haired Alpha strutted away, leaving Yuri seething, chest still puffed.

"That's so nice; you've made a friend, Yurio!" Victor said loudly.

Yuri turned red despite the refrigerated ice rink air. "THAT'S NOT MY FRIEND!"

"Too similar," Lei-Mei repeated her earlier words. Far from offended, her expression was amused. With a final nod, she and her mate stepped away to their seats in order to watch their son's performance.

What kind of shitty world was this, where washed up no-talents like Cao Bin were compared to him? Yuri sympathized with himself completely. Ridiculous, that's what this was.

"Relax, Yurio," said Victor bracingly, stuffing the cantankerous teenager into a seat as far away from everyone else as possible. As people cycled in and out from performances, the small seating area remained only about half occupied at any given time. "Some of our best work is done while trying to one-up our rivals."

"Rival?" Hm, Yuri could tolerate that. He was still gleefully thinking about beating the shit out of Cao in every sense of the word when a soft hand on his shoulder broke his internal mind theater.

It was Yuuri, who looked quite serious. "It's not good to hold onto grudges for a long time, Yurio."

"I don't agree with you at all," Yuri retorted. "Aren't you pissed off that he's acting like nothing ever happened? Cao Bin was an asshole to you!"

"Do you think things are really that great for him right now? Nearly the entire ice skating community heard what he did. He lost all his sponsors. His dam is embarrassed by him. What's so wonderful about how his life is going?"

Conflicted, Yuri glanced at Victor, who was just in the middle of tapping a finger against his left cheek. The Alpha smiled apologetically. "Sorry Yuuri, but I love grudges. I think we should unscrew his skates' blades from his boots later on."

"I think you should try to feel pity for him."

"Pass."

A flash of displeasure sparked in Yuuri's expression and Yuri was rather alarmed to find that it was directed at Victor. A faint sort of dread settled like silt in his chest and it occurred to Yuri that he had never seen them get pissed off at each other before.

"Excuse me, Victor," said Yuuri, politely but with such a thin layer of ice that a warm breath might break it. "I don't want Yurio to think that's fine."

"You can't control what Yurio thinks."

"Does our house look out of control to you?"

"Well, no," Victor responded carefully.

He and Yuuri stared at each other for a few seconds before Victor blew a loud sigh past his lips, dispelling a thin silver thread of hair from his eye. A persistent furrow to his brow suggested he still didn't agree. In anycase, he grinned at his Omega. "You always were a better person than me."

"Hm, always?"

"Are you fighting?" Yuri interrupted bluntly. Without noticing, he'd begun to pick anxiously at the cuticle of his thumb. He remembered when his biological sires fought. The two of them had both been Alphas and things had escalated quickly and often. Still, there was something to be said for the fact that they had rarely existed in the same household, even before the conclusion of their mateship. Something about seeing Victor and Yuuri at odds took Yuri right back to that place and he found that he didn't like it.

"Fighting?" Victor echoed his question, shrugging. "A little, I guess. Why?"

Yuri sputtered. "T-tch! I didn't know you gave each other a hard time like that! You probably bother each other as much as you do everyone else!"

He didn't like the calculating, almost pitying look Yuuri gave him after that. "People can disagree or become cross with one another and still like each other."

"Not usually!"

"Yes usually," Victor insisted. "Who said otherwise?"

"I just know that!"

"From who?"

"Everyone!"

There was a long, pregnant pause during which Yuri wanted to die of embarrassment. Who the hell said things like that!? Pathetic people, that was who.

"It sounds like the world doesn't feel like a safe place to you."

Yuri reacted defensively, cheeks still hot. "Who asked you? I'm not a child!"

"Sure you are," Victor disagreed casually. His attitude was uncharacteristically serious. "You know Yurio, even when I get mad at Yuuri, or he gets mad at me, we aren't breaking up. It's normal not to agree with other people every time. And we aren't telling you to get lost if we argue with you either. I think you're waiting for something like that to happen, but it's not going to."

"Of course that's the case," Yuuri agreed firmly. "You're so important to us, Yurio. Don't forget about or doubt that at all."

Yuri slouched into his seat, avoiding the two sets of eyes on him while crossing his arms because yeah, he'd been kind of waiting for what Victor said.

Yuuri's voice finally saved him. "I think we should discuss this more later. Right now, let's just watch and calm down. You're up next, Yurio. Don't go into it overthinking everything."

Yuri straightened up slightly, staring determinedly directly in front of him. The entire conversation was so embarrassing; he hated feeling like some insecure kid. Watching Cao Bin skate only made him stew on his situation further. Would Yuri be like that if Victor and Yuuri had raised him from scratch? Would Yuuri have taught him all the etiquette rules so he didn't look like an idiot while Victor taught him how to act like a decent Alpha?

Yuri couldn't help being that much more irritated by his rival and vowed all the more to outshine the dark-haired Alpha today.

"He's doing pretty well," Yuri heard Yuuri say.

"Hm." Victor sounded unmoved. He said something else too quietly for him to catch, to which Yuuri clicked his tongue in amusement.

"You're definitely biased towards Yurio."

Biting his lip to keep from reacting, Yurio felt his chest warm up at the comment. It felt nice to have people pulling for him like that.

It felt nice to have someone care.


	10. The Thirty-Sixth Hour

**Unintentionally Yours**

 _articas_ursula (AO3)_

 _artica's-ursula (FFN)_

 _Beta reader: TheDisreputableDog_

* * *

Chapter 10: The Thirty-Sixth Hour

* * *

 _Not so long ago now:_

"This is Victor Nikiforov! Please leave me a message. Thank you!"

Unknown number:

" _Victor, it's me-um, Nicolas. Nick. We exchanged phone numbers at the mall? Call me back."_

End of message.

 _Delete._

Read texts (1)

Unknown number:

 _It's Aleksander... You haven't returned my calls and I had a really great time last week and I think you did too. I really felt a connection._

 _Delete._

"This is Victor Nikiforov! Please leave me a message. Thank you!"

Unknown number:

" _Victor, I don't know what I did wrong. I thought things went well last weekend and… It's Vlad. You have my number…"_

End of message.

 _Delete._

Read texts (1)

Unknown number:

 _I guess you're done, since you're not answering me anymore. You could have at least told me that rather than ignore me, jerk! -Matvei_

 _Delete._

"Are you hungry at all?"

Victor paused, looking up from where he'd been sprawled across the bed, deleting old messages on his phone that had ended up there somewhere between the end of the Grand Prix when Yuuri left without speaking to him and yesterday. Victor was only human after all, and being rejected like that had stung. It wasn't the mature thing, trying to soothe his ego with other people, but it was what he had done. Yakov was holding a plated grilled sandwich and wearing an awkward frown as he stood in the guest room doorway.

This room had been Victor's in his youth. Many ruts had been spent here, though the dents and slashes that the walls had suffered over the years had been perfectly patched and painted. It was fairly common in Russia for maturing Alphas to be sent off to specialized hotels which were all but bomb-proof in order to spare their guardians' homes from the damage of a rut, but Yakov had always flatly refused this.

Things like that reminded Victor that things could have been a lot worse for him. It made him remember his first visit to the family practice doctor instead of a pediatrician. Victor had been fifteen at the time and had scared the breath out of his guardian by waking him suddenly at three in the morning to furiously demand Yakov finish cutting his long silver hair. Yakov, who had never had children and had never encountered such a tantrum before, stared in horror at the hacked-off half of Victor's hair before yanking away the scissors Victor had done it with and frog-marching him to the local clinic a few hours later. Instead of a psychotic break, as Yakov had suspected, it turned out Victor's Alpha mind was simply adjusting itself in preparation for its imminent initial rut.

That news had been almost more frightening.

"He will grow into a weak Alpha if you keep coddling him like that," the militant-looking Beta physician had reprimanded Yakov during the discussion. "He should be in a rut hotel. Especially the first time."

"Thank you for that opinion," Yakov had replied coldly. The three information pamphlets in his hand had crumpled as his fist closed tightly. "But he is a child. Children should stay at home."

Yakov was still cautious with him even now, more than ten years later.

Victor sniffed the air. "A little hungry, yes," he admitted in answer to Yakov's question, throwing his legs over the side of the bed and sitting up as Yakov placed the food on his nightstand. "Can I leave soon?"

Scowling, Yakov thrust his left arm forward, flashing the watch on it under Victor's nose. "Vitya, stop it! Three more hours!"

"My flight isn't for six hours," Victor bargained. "It's not like I'll be going anywhere anyway if you let me go."

"I wasn't born yesterday. I know there's a flight to Nagasaki Airport that leaves in two hours, so you're not leaving my sight until I'm sure you've missed it."

Outmaneuvered, Victor turned to scowl into Makkachin's fluffy brown curls. The poodle happy thumped his tail against the pillows he'd burrowed into. "You know, Alphas travel internationally all the time before the thirty-six hours are up. It's not as though there's a way to check for the exact timing."

The hand that had been withdrawn after showing him the time was once more extending, but this time to flick Victor hard on the crown of his head. "Don't push your luck with me!" Yakov snapped. "This idea is already the worst. You don't know anything about this Omega personally but you're traveling thousands of kilometers to see him?"

"I know him," Victor insisted, narrowing his sky-bright eyes.

"You and every other Alpha think that after reading a few of his interviews!"

To underscore this point, Yakov reached over to a purposefully nondescript cardboard box and knocked it off the stack of items moved to Victor's old room for safekeeping until after his rut.

Most of these things hadn't been hidden because of Victor's rut in and of itself-though this had been a particularly violent one. For the most part what Victor had squirreled away these past few weeks were items that could cause some embarrassment should the post-rut cleaning company encounter them.

A few seasons ago someone on the hired cleaning crew had found the empty bottle of Omega pheromones Victor had used that time and had sold the story to several international tabloids as well as put the bottle up online for auction. Yakov had sued the individual responsible as well as the cleaning service for violation of the confidentiality agreement and theft. He'd switched to a different company, but the damage had been done. Victor, still young and dramatic as ever, had informed Yakov (from behind his heavily barricaded bedroom door) that he was on strike and never coming out again.

Since the door opened outward rather than inward like Victor had thought it did, the strike had been swiftly ended by Yakov's master house key.

"If you act like you have something to be embarrassed about, then that's how people will treat you!" Yakov had yelled in Victor's stunned face, prodding his chest with a forefinger. "Hold your head up! Your confidence should be based on what you think of yourself, and that's all!"

It had been a good lesson from Yakov, and it had taught Victor to be very careful about moving anything potentially embarrassing from his apartment to Yakov's house in the week or two before his rut. The box Yakov pointedly knocked over contained such items.

"Hey!" Victor protested, jumping to his feet as magazines, several featuring Yuuri Katsuki's face, spilled across the floor.

"If all you're going on is what's in this box, you're going to have a big problem when you get to Japan. This isn't like giving your phone number to one of your fans, Victor. I know you've been doing that lately."

The magazine that landed on top of all the others wasn't that old. The cover was dedicated to Katsuki, his gorgeous copper-honeycomb eyes set in thick lashes staring out from the page. Accidental releases from their scent glands were not uncommon for teenagers; embarrassing, but not uncommon. Yuuri Katsuki had become an overnight Omega superstar when, quite by accident, a puff of his pheromones stole into the air at the Japan Open a few years ago. The scent was said to have been _intoxicating_ ; perfect in a way that no one had ever known possible.

It had happened at the kiss and cry with dozens of reporters circling around, so the next morning the international ice skating community had woken up to all eyes on them. While the focus had begun on Katsuki, it had rippled out to bring the sport in general into the public eye. Ice skating had trended on every social media platform and interest in the sport had skyrocketed. Suddenly, sports news channels that had scoffed at figure skaters as frilly and denied them as athletes were covering the sport by popular demand. Talk shows featured costume designers that specialized in ice skating outfits. Major brands scrambled to find a popular skater to sponsor, running commercials featuring their products presented by an ice skater. From Los Angeles to Shanghai, children wanted ice skates for their birthday. Basketball, football, soccer, hockey-figure skating was right there alongside them.

It had been the advent of popularized ice skating.

The attention on Katsuki remained strong still, picking up speed as more and more people noticed how very pretty he was. People wanted to know what his scent was like in person and events with his participation sold out easily. This wasn't universally liked, however, since it was known that some attendees merely showed up to gawk at him.

Victor didn't count that against Yuuri, who did nothing to encourage the attention.

Far from coasting on his looks and Omega status, Victor found that he was dazzlingly clever and had a degree in International Dynamics Etiquette and Culture Studies from Kyushu University in Fukuoka, which ranked in the top five universities in all of Japan. He had a poodle that looked startlingly like Makkachin-though Victor never did catch the dog's name-and his favorite food was a dish called katsudon.

And all of that he knew from the magazines scattered across the floor.

Victor had broken his habit of lying to Yakov a long time ago, and so didn't attempt it now. "He asked me to be his coach."

"Coach!?" Yakov looked like he couldn't believe what he was hearing. "What do you know about _coaching?_ "

"I've watched you do it enough."

Yakov buried his face in his hands, slowly dragging them down his eyes, cheeks, and chin. "What possessed you to make such an offer?"

"I didn't. Like I said, Yuuri is the one that asked me."

"Do you jump off a bridge every time Plisetsky _asks_ you to!?"

"I don't think even cats have enough lives for that."

"I'm not kidding you, Victor! You have no idea what you're doing! Did you even tell him you're coming?"

"I'm going forward with this."

There was a long silence as the two stared at each other. Yakov was responsible for him in many ways, but they weren't exactly sire and pup. They weren't connected by a familial mark. Yakov could order Victor to do something, but Victor was under no internal compulsion to do it.

At last, Yakov grunted. "You'll do whatever you want in the end and we both know it. Fine."

As his mentor turned away, Victor felt vaguely unsettled. Though they weren't connected by a bond, it still didn't please him to be on the outs with Yakov. He had to do what he thought was right though.

"Hey, Yakov." The Beta turned. "Aren't you going to help clean these up since you spilled them?"

"I'm not touching anything from that box without gloves!"

Despite his clear misgivings, Yakov kept his word, depositing both Victor and Makkachin at the departure terminal of Pulkovo Airport three hours later.

"I can't believe I'm leaving that dog in your care," Yakov said gruffly, scratching Makkachin behind the ears while attempting to look business-like about it. "You and that poodle are about as responsible as each other."

Crooning, Victor suddenly picked up the large dog, laughing as his face was licked. "He's so smart, isn't he?"

"That dog is so stupid that it keeps me up at night."

Victor feigned insult. Their ongoing joke was for Victor to insist on his poodle's brilliance while Yakov maintained skepticism about that. Still, Victor knew Yakov would miss them both very much. It had been awhile since the older man had been apart from them for long. Victor didn't know how long he'd be away, but he would do what it took to court Yuuri properly.

Placing his dog on the ground once more, he extended the handle of his luggage. "I guess it's time to go, huh?"

Yakov didn't look agreeable to that. "You can still change your mind and be a reasonable person."

Victor only smiled. "I know how worried you are. I think you're used to worrying about me, so probably nothing I say will fix that. I can't stop thinking about him though. I have to see Yuuri or I'll never know if he likes me too."

The Beta just shook his head in exasperation but allowed it when Victor leaned forward to give him a brisk parting hug and kiss on the cheek. He was half a head shorter than Victor and wow, when had that happened? Yakov had always seemed so tall and all-knowing. It was strange to think he didn't have all the answers Victor needed anymore.

"See you, Yakov."

Finally, the older man gave up on asking him to stay.

Yakov sighed. "Until then."

* * *

For all of Cao Bin's arrogance, Yuri was delighted to see firsthand that he'd made one moderately significant error in his short skate. Yuri could tell it would put him behind at least JJ, who led the program, and Chris, who held second. Though he probably wouldn't come behind Järvinen, a Finnish skater that Yuri didn't know, who had badly fumbled early on in his performance and never really recovered.

Yuri was looking forward to smirking at his rival and had considered with relish the most perfectly poisonous expression to wear. But how to present it? Should he pretend not to see him right away only to notice him over his shoulder? Or should he stare at Cao Bin the entire time to really rub it in that Yuri had seen him teeter on the transition to his step-sequence?

These were important questions.

"You know, I just thought about how you have something of Yuuri's that you're wearing for good luck. Don't you want something of mine too?"

Thrown by the comment, Yuri completely dropped his plans in favor of turning crab shell red.

"H-Huh?"

Victor patted his right pocket with one hand, running the other carelessly through his iconic silver hair. His gold mating ring that bound him to Yuuri for life glimmered in the light.

"Oh! This fell off my costume this morning!" Victor withdrew his hand from his coat to produce a dazzling clear stone. It was almost the size of Yuri's smallest fingernail and looked as perfect as a diamond.

"It's a cubic zirconia stone. Pretty, right?"

"Yeah, but…" he frowned. "You don't want to keep it?"

Victor shook his head. "No, I think you're meant to have it. And you should have something of mine. It's important."

Hesitantly, Yuri slowly reached out to take the small jewel between his forefinger and thumb from the center of Victor's palm. It was beautifully faceted and sparkled in the light. He'd never held something so mesmerizing before.

Victor clapped, grinning airily. "Okay! Now go skate!"

Yuri blinked, disoriented, before suddenly recalling his scheme to make Cao Bin feel like a loser. He whirled around immediately, eyes fixating on the ice rink's exit, but was disappointed to learn that Cao Bin had passed him while Victor held his attention.

Glowering back at Victor, Yuri wasn't buying the innocence he was faking. "You did that on purpose!" he accused.

"So grouchy," Victor complained to Yuuri as an aside before adding cheerily: "Do you have your identification on you still? Hand it to me so you don't drop it."

"Drink this," Yuuri tacked on, shoving a bottle of water under his nose with a straw poking out.

Grumbing, Yuri felt around for his identification card where he'd tucked it into his costume while sipping at the straw. He'd stuck his phone there too so he tugged both items out and deposited them in Victor's open palm. "Don't go looking through my phone!"

"How bored are you planning to make me in the next few minutes?"

"Yuri Plisetsky is next!" a member of the arena's staff called in accented English, consulting her earpiece.

"Alright, here we are again, Yurio." Victor wrapped an arm around his shoulders. "Here's my advice, for now and all the other times you'll complete. Don't go to fast, don't go too slow. You know your rhythm, so follow it."

"Who's really coaching this kid anyway?" Yakov's impatient voice broke in. Yuri turned in time to see Yakov arrive, pushing Victor aside. His black felt hat was firmly in place as was his ever-present scowl. The relief Yuri felt at seeing him was instant. The old man had been his coach for so many years now that he didn't know if he could stand to be at a performance without him.

"Stop getting in my way," Yakov ordered Victor. "Go sit down." He paused. "Hello Yuuri," he added much more nicely.

Yuuri smiled sweetly. "It's so nice to see you Yakov. Please take care of Yurio."

Yuri, thinking that would be the end of it, turned to focus fully on Yakov for his traditional last-minute wisdom. His heart rate was up; he could feel it. A familiar jump from his stomach to his throat made him swallow hard against it. This competition wasn't especially dear to him, but it felt as though he carried twice his usual pressure to succeed. Not only was a large audience watching, but Yuri's new rival would be looking for mistakes to criticize. Additionally, this was the first time he would skate professionally in front of his dam and sort-of sire, Yuuri and Victor.

Would they be proud of him?

Would he embarrass them?

Suddenly, delicate arms wrapped around him. The soothing scent of his dam soaked him in a balmy warmth as Yuuri's soft dark hair pressed against his face while leaning in to tell him: "Good luck, Yurio."

Yuri tensed in shock before melting against the Omega's lithe form. With his dam's familiar scent, he felt his heart soothe and slow. His clarity came back to him, making things sharp and real.

Victor flicked at his familial mark as he walked away, winking. "Have fun!"

Yuuri pulled back after a moment, pausing to squeeze Yuri's hands in his with a beaming smile. Then he left to fall into step with Victor, who had waited for him. Yuri watched the Alpha-Omega pair move just out of hearing range a short ways away to give Yakov space to speak with him.

Yuri's anxiety spiked again.

"I can't fuck this up, Yakov."

His coach waved the dark comment away. "You always do well, Yuri. But don't let yourself get caught up with who's watching! You've trained hard. Trust in that."

Yuri didn't respond, but he was definitely breathing quicker. He cared more about what would happen next than he did at his first Grand Prix last year. Victor's stone indented into his palm as he clenched his fist around it. Exhaling in a long, harsh sigh, Yuri slipped it into the tight spandex of his costume just under his neckline.

"Yuri Plisetsky, please enter now," the same staffer told him.

Yakov nodded firmly, removing his hat to crumple it between his hands as Yuri began removing his blade guards. "It doesn't matter who's watching-remember. It's only you out there. _Focus_."

Entering the ice, Yuri took his time with long strokes of his skates to get a feel for the surface. Fifth slot wasn't bad-there were seven entries in the men's single skate division today. He would have hated going first like JJ had, or last like Yuuri's friend Phichit would. The overhead announcer was speaking quick French and somewhere in another room the international sports stations were translating each sentence into a variety of languages.

Yuri cut to a stop at the center of the rink, allowing the ice to help him focus. He posed confidently in preparation to begin, taking a deep, slow breath.

This is what he'd trained for.

Yuri glanced casually back the way he'd come.

Right here, he would debut his newest routine and everyone, especially _Cao Bin_ , would be floored by it. Yuri could see part of his head over at the kiss and cry and just knew that he, Yuri, was about to prove how much better than that guy he was.

Alright, time to focus.

But in that moment of dragging his gaze back to look directly ahead of him, Yuri's sight snagged.

Victor wasn't even _watching_!

Yuri's outrage was horribly derailing.

Suddenly, the first notes of his song spilled into the air from the surrounding speakers. Yuri was stupidly surprised to hear it and panic bolted through him as he started to move, though several beats late.

Was Victor watching now?

Yuri couldn't tell as the first thirty seconds of his routine blew by. He could see Katsudon's face turned towards him, but wasn't able to focus long enough to determine any particular expression.

There it was: the one minute mark.

His more complex footwork was coming up and Yuri needed to know that Victor was watching for it. It was the same footwork that Yuri had practiced for hours on end back in St. Petersburg with Katsudon's warm encouragements and Victor's more critical commentary.

Yuri looked.

Yes, Victor was watching.

The cost of checking for proof was… terrible.

Yuri felt the edge of his right toepick catch the blade of his left skate before his balance skewed sharply forward. He was already picking himself up as smoothly as possible from the ice where he'd caught himself with his right hand before it had really registered that he'd fallen at all.

 _Fallen? I fell?_

Pushing through, the young Alpha moved swiftly through the final twenty seconds of jumps and turns in a daze.

Yuri hadn't fallen in competition since he was twelve years old! He couldn't believe it. This couldn't be happening.

It was only when he stopped moving and the shock of actually falling during a program settled that Yuri noticed his right wrist throbbing. The applause made him blink, and then, it was over.

 _I fell._

Making his way back to exit the ice was dreadful. Each stroke of his skate brought him closer to what he knew would be consolation words that were for losers and probably the smug face of his rival. Yuri wasn't sure which would be less tolerable.

Sure enough, Victor and Yuuri were both waiting for him. They didn't say anything as he paused to pop on his hard plastic blade guards. As he did, he caught Cao Bin's face in his peripheral vision. The other Alpha was being stared down like a prisoner by his dam _and_ sire, and Yuri knew that was the only thing keeping the asshole from throwing a triumphant smirk his way.

"There's nothing you can say to make me feel better," Yuri spoke first, shrugging into his Team Russia skate jacket. His heart was still rattling around in his chest. He began to head in the direction of kiss and cry and was unsurprised when Victor and Yuuri followed. "I fell. I fucked up."

Victor slung a muscular arm around his shoulders, tossing his sterling hair. "Ah the fatalism of youth."

"You would think so, ancient as you are!" Yuri shrugged away from Victor's touch, stopping to face him. "You weren't even watching most of it!"

Victor frowned. "What? Of course I was."

"I looked over at the beginning and you weren't watching!" Yuri insisted, slamming a foot down angrily. "I missed my staring cue because I was busy looking at you-!"

"Hey." It was said neither in a louder tone than the rest of the conversation had been conducted nor was it with any particular inflection, but Yuri quickly shut his mouth as Victor spoke, the wind sucked from his sails. His sire didn't continue immediately, pausing to force Yuri's gaze to meet his by pushing his chin up with two fingers. His flashy sky eyes were impossible to meet for long, but the younger Alpha did his best.

"The first thing is, when bad things happen, you don't try to blame everyone else, Yurio. Did you hear that?"

"...Yeah," Yuri muttered irritably when it became clear an answer was expected.

"Yeah. The second thing is that if you act as though you have something to be embarrassed about, people will treat you like you do." Yuri crossed his arms automatically, gaze veering off towards anywhere else. It flicked back to Victor when the older Alpha snapped his fingers impatiently.

Victor's expression was so serious.

"When you go for your scoring, you hold your head _up_ , right? I know how hard the footwork for the step sequence on the second half was and you did it _perfectly_ , Yurio."

Yuri cleared his throat against the pressure that was building up in it. He still felt like a loser, but contrary to what he'd said earlier, Victor's words had in fact made him feel better.

Someone calling his name made all three of them look around. Yakov, who had given them space to speak, was hovering slightly off to the side. It was time to leave for the kiss and cry.

"Alright, go with Yakov." Victor placed two fingers under Yuri's chin and lifted it by a few degrees. "Head up, right?"

Yuri nodded, not trusting himself to speak but maintaining the posture.

"Drink some of this, please." Yuuri, who had been weirdly quiet during the discussion but for a few small noises of agreement, offered him the same water with a straw in it as he had earlier. Yuri took an obliging sip, feeling the tightness at his throat soothe.

"Thanks," he muttered, absently rubbing his wrist. He turned the Yakov, nodded, and the two of them departed.

Usually when Yuri approached the kiss and cry station, he felt cocky. He was an excellent skater and had grown used to being the one to beat at competitions. He felt awkward about it today, knowing he certainly wasn't going to rank first. Even so, he remembered Victor's words and kept his head held high as Yakov preceded him into the kiss and cry area. He sat down next to his coach as they waited for his results, trying to picture how he usually looked while he awaited scores and doing his best to mimic that. Yuri felt weirdly aware of the fact that there was a camera trained on him right now, broadcasting his facial expressions across the stadium as well as on multiple sports channels streaming internationally. His new Alpha senses were starting to pick up things like that-things he hadn't noticed before that he suddenly was now.

"Yuri Plisetsky," the overhead voice rang out, and then the leaderboard appeared. Only five names were up at the moment, since Yuri himself had been fifth.

In first place was JJ, which Yuri privately expected of his new… friend.

Chris had snagged second, and Yuri couldn't help but wonder very briefly how that must feel. Chris had come in just after JJ so many times that the last Grand Prix might have been the first occasion in which Chris's scores had overpowered him.

The third spot… The third spot was held by Cao Bin, who had narrowly bested Yuri to come out with bronze.

The experience of enduring the crowd's cheers rubbed him in a weird way too. He didn't need their pity applause. He was a star!

"-so I'm off to see to Mila. You'll be fine now, right?"

Realizing Yakov was talking to him, Yuri made a vague sound of agreement before waving the man off and slouching away. He rubbed his wrist. He was giving himself a headache, ricocheting between self-pity and confidence like this. Still, Victor commented positively on his composure when he arrived back at the coaches' seating, so that was worth something.

"We'll go change into our costumes," Victor told him, pausing for dramatic effect. "We drew the last slot. Can you believe our bad luck?"

"Hm."

Yuri had a hard time believing that luck had anything to do with it. Enough though each slot was purportedly assigned by chance, Yuri couldn't imagine anything worse than being the one to follow _the_ "it couple" Victor Nikiforov and Yuuri Katsuki. The two of them going last was the only fair thing to do to avoid handicapping any other pair.

Yuuri reached over to trace his hand briefly over Yuri's blond hair. It didn't even occur to Yuri to dodge it. "I know how hard it is to fall in competition." Yuri blinked, suddenly recalling that even perfect Yuuri Katsuki had faced down the shame of a public spill.

Yuuri continued. "And I'm so impressed by how you're handling yourself right now. Getting a perfect score is great, but learning that your world isn't over when you fall is even more valuable. Still, I won't downplay how bad you must be feeling right now. It's okay to be upset by things not going how you wanted them to."

Pursing his lips, Yuri ducked his head, hesitantly touching his forehead against Yuuri's chest. "Thanks," he muttered into his Team Japan skate jacket.

There was a slight pause-surprise, likely-before a larger hand ruffled his hair.

"Hey!" Yuri snipped, ducking away from under Yuuri's chin with an indignant scowl.

"You'll stay out of trouble while we change, right?" Victor grinned.

Yuri rolled his eyes. "I'm not five!"

"Oh? I always forget that. See you!"

"We'll see you soon, Yurio."

Yuri watched them go, grimacing at the sudden twinge in his right wrist where he'd been absentmindedly rubbing it. The stress of his experience had distracted him, but looking down now, he finally noticed his wrist starting to swell. The joint felt warmer to the touch than the surrounding skin, come to think of it, but Yuri didn't know if that meant anything.

Fuck, did he sprain it? _Break_ it!?

It didn't hurt terribly but his first impulse anyway was to catch up with Yuuri and Victor. He could play up the injury for awhile, get some attention out of it, then go back to trying to trip Cao Bin up every time the other skater passed by. Yuri wasn't stupid though and, on second thought, knew that Yuuri wouldn't let him skate tomorrow if he knew about the injury.

"Hey, Yurio!"

Hastily, Yuri shoved his hands into his jacket pockets, grimacing at his wrist throbbed in protest. He turned slightly to find Chris coming towards him, loosely holding a hodgepodge of flowers at his side, thrown to him by his fans.

"Did they tell you to watch me again?" Yuri asked doubtfully.

"Haha! There aren't enough small countries to pay me with for that. You're the worst!" Despite this statement, he clapped Yuri on the shoulder gamely. "So! You fell, right?"

It was like being slapped: sudden, stinging, and leaving Yuri with a taste for returning the favor.

"So, you lost to JJ again, right?" Yuri returned immediately, unconsciously drawing his hands out once again to gesture rudely. "So that's basically every time you've gone against him. Should you bother performing at a competition knowing he's there?"

Chris made a face at him. "When are they going to ground you? You could use it."

"When you legally have to stay fifty feet away from me at all times!"

Chris swooned at him, tossing his larger frame into the blond. "But I want you to come to the wishing fire I'm throwing after all-"

Yuri hissed in pain, jerking away.

"What's wrong?" Chris immediately stopped playing around, backing off and looking uncharacteristically serious. He gave Yuri a quick once-over and noticed right away that he was guarding his right hand. "Sorry! Did I get you?"

"No." Yuri paused before reluctantly adding: "I… fell on it."

Chris cursed in surprise. "Really? I didn't think you landed on it so hard. It's not bad though, right? Since Yuuri is willing to leave you alone, that means it's okay?"

There was an awkward silence before Chris finally realized that neither Yuuri nor Victor had been told. He declared his findings to Yuri, adding: "And if you don't tell them right away, I'll sit on you until you do."

"No! They'll make me withdraw from the competition tomorrow! You're sworn to secrecy!"

Chris made a sound of incredulity. "I don't remember being sworn into anything. This is a bad idea, Yurio. What if it's broken?"

"It's not!"

"I like that you have a medical license on top of all the skating you do."

"It isn't bad," Yuri insisted. "Look!"

Yuri extended his right arm, intending to flex his wrist to prove it. The swelling had gotten a bit worse even in just the last few minutes though and the throbbing was starting to really get to him. In the end, Chris just stared at him while he wriggled his fingers.

"We might have to amputate it," said Chris contemplatively.

"Fuck off!"

"Look, at least take this." From his Team Switzerland skate jacket pocket, Chris produced a small over-the-counter medication bottle. "It's just an anti inflammatory and pain reliever."

"This better not actually be something illegal that will get me banned during drug tests."

Chris laughed at him, shaking a few pills into his hand. "Are there assassins just hanging around where you live? Because you're very paranoid about everything."

Accepting them with his left hand, he swallowed two tablets dry as Chris began to agonize over the situation.

"Come on, Yurio, you have to tell them! That at least needs to be iced, and probably x-rayed."

"No!"

"I'll drag you," Chris threatened.

"I'll yell!"

"Oh, but you know I love it when you make noise."

Yuri shrieked in disgust, jumping away. Okay, clearly this guy was going to tell his "parents" one way or another. Yuri knew things would be worse for him if they found out from someone else.

And honestly, the pain in his wrist was really bothering him.

Scowling, Yuri avoided Chris's stare-down by pretending to watch the ice. A girl he didn't know was just starting her performance.

He _had_ to skate tomorrow. He'd already screwed up his total score after today, but Victor had told him to keep his head up. Yuri couldn't quit now.

Yuri clenched his teeth around the words: "I'll tell them. _After_ they perform. That's my final offer!"

From his peripheral vision, he saw Chris raise his hands in surrender. "Okay, okay! I'll bring you an ice pack if you swear you'll stay right here."

Yuri agreed and Chris vanished off to a side hallway.

Left to his own devices, Yuri tried not to mess with his aching wrist. It must have been Mila's turn to skate next because when he looked around he saw her speaking in low tones with Yakov and looking fidgety.

The redhead had changed into a vibrant hunter-green costume with shimmering fairy makeup that did nothing to convince Yuri that this woman was anything other than an evil witch-hag. Mila's demon-claws were coated in their usual varnish-probably dark this time to hide the bloodstains of her enemies caked beneath them.

While he might call her a witch and a hag, really the other Alpha was… tolerable. Yuri decided she would be his friend too. That would mean he had two friends total, which was impressive since he'd only started this 'friend' business about two hours ago.

The overhead voice made a short announcement with Mila's full name and the staffer ushered her forward onto the ice. As she removed her skate guards, Yuri cleared his throat.

"Do your best out there!" he yelled from his position just outside of casual earshot, clapping twice.

Mila paused, glancing up at him with a flash of surprise. She grinned at him, waved, and stepped onto the ice with a strong stride that brought her to the center of the rink with easy grace.

In practice, Mila's performance had included an ambitious set of triple to double to single jumps. Yuri knew she'd had trouble maintaining momentum enough to complete the whole sequence and leaned forward intently to watch his new friend.

Weirdly, instead of cameras flashing in Mila's direction, a lot of them were pointed towards the coaches' seating area now. Pretty much where Yuri was.

Looking around in slight alarm and half-expecting that he'd done something to accidentally warrant the attention, Yuri straightened upon noticing what had stirred the action.

Yuuri and Victor had arrived.


End file.
